The Dead
The dead want you to calm down.
They are quite fine, and don't need
your post-mortem tears, the flowers and veils;
their names mispronounced by preachers.
None of your catechisms will do -- especially
for the children, who know them well and need
no confessional box of secrets to tell
what all of them already knew: this life
is short, or long, depending on hours of mischance
and miscreants. The dead want you to be quiet,
like them, as they watch the ceremonies
you provide, like unforgiven lovers
hoping to make it all right.
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Other stories by Philip F. Clark
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Very fine.
"The dead want you to be quiet,
like them,..."
Very nice.
Yes, is good. I thought at first the last line didn't need the 'all', but then I saw that the double stress of 'all right' matches the 'calm down' and 'don't need' of the first two lines. For what that's worth. I don't really get poetry.
I love the sentences--from the opening simple sentence to the more compound and complex ones-- and I love the way you divided them into lines, one line tipping into the next.
And all of it sacred too.
Nice poem, Philip.
*
**I think the dead feel this way, too.