One by one they pass through, obsidian shoes
soundless as cats across the carpet,
ushered by a black suit
and folded hands to the respective room.
There they wait with crossed arms in a line,
making pleasantries
with songless choirs of flowers,
the glossed cards’ edges,
the embossed sympathies,
waiting for their turn to shuffle across
and back, and recede like memories into the pews.

Every ticking minute another appears – shoulders
filling the spaces
between shoulders. Heads turn to see
for whom they are inching closer together,
then wave to the strange relative.

So nice to meet you again, and how have you been?
The flight was fine, on time and without inconvenience,
though lately I’ve had a pinched nerve in my knee. Ha!
I’m getting so old I swear my joints creak.

And in the meantime there are pictures,
yellow pictures of a time when everything
was yellow – the matching ties and cufflinks,
the yellow smoke puffing from the yellow pipe,
the yellow picket fence –
all embalmed in yellow plastic.

Let them pass the leaves from lap to lap,
Let the godson hum nothing to himself
in his hourglass seat –

See, look. His nose was never that big. He may be
an Englishman but even an Englishman’s nose
could never be so crooked.

Four hours more and two until lunch
the paralytic clock says,
and the children are starving.
They rock their backs to the back of their seats,
buzz their lips, puff air
between their cheeks, trace their eyes
along the slanted edges of the overcast ceiling
as if sand might leak through,
pull their feet up under their knees from the floor,
jagged as a hooked nose.

Let the mothers run their fingers through
their sleeping babies’ hair,
let the wife lay down the loveliest silk
flowers and scent them with perfume.
Let the uncle bounce the niece on his knee,
her shrill giggle thrill over sighs,

and if the in-laws dab their eyes
it’s no one’s business.
Do not wonder
how they glue the lips together
or keep the skin from drying,
how they dress the body and situate it into the casket
without wrinkling the suit.
If it bothers you they will make sure
it is facing the right way,
give you a few minutes at the end
before they shut the hard lid,
and you may wait by the car
while they collect the bouquets,
scrape off the shoe scuffs
and vacuum your petals off the floor.