ABOUT THE DEAD, BRIEFLY

1.

Did you see him take leave

without a goodbye, wordless

stretched on the table,

somehow cheerful looking,

enough to make one giggle.

No one from his family

was by his side.

Only us, strangers.

In the bedroom where he lay stretched,

we could hear the flies buzz

in the windows of the living room.

We sniffled and sniffled,

but nobody shed a tear.

May the earth be easy on him;

since it was only today that we noticed

he had been alive.

2.

Fat among the roses,

a wallet full of rubbish

displayed under glass…

In that hallway

when the overhead lights came on

and the sound of footsteps ceased,

we saw our neighbor

who loved horse races

laid out royally

with the hoofs outside of his coffin.