Songs for a Funeral, Songs for Next Year

And they’d come up

Over the hill

Playing songs for funerals

And songs for next year

Too many buried

Too many gone

But that’s life

And that’s time

One in the ground

Two in the cradle

And so be grateful

Be grateful we got this far

Your mother liked the guitar

That was her play of choice

Although your aunt did the singing

And your grandmother held the baton

Walking backwards down a hill

Acting the conductor

While your grandfather screamed

She was going to fall backwards

And wouldn’t she hit her head

And wind up in a coffin

Right next to whoever’s funeral it was?

But no mind was paid

And down the hill they’d go

Playing and playing

Like the music was the only thing

Could get the old soul

To Heaven

The people listening on the sides
Would either be crying

Or thinking about what’s to come

All’s in the way ahead

All’s forgiven

All’s remembered

Some would go back

To empty beds

And rest their heads

And quietly pass

From awareness

To depletion

We’d say prayers for those

The way we would

Prayers for the released

But your mother

She never stopped

Playing that guitar

And your aunt never stopped singing

And your grandmother

Moved her baton around

Like it was a magic wand

All the women of your family

Would take it upon themselves

To remind everyone

Through a tune

That what we have now is borrowed

And what’s waiting for us

Is heartstone

The first time I let your mother

See me dancing to her music

Was on the eve

Of my own father’s burial day

I wanted her to see

That I was a man

Who could look ahead

And not let his tears

Tire him out

She wouldn’t give me

The smile off her lips

But when the night was nearly up

She asked if she could walk me home

And from that day on

We were inseparable

I think of her on days like this

And how well

You play her guitar

She would have held her chin

Like a statue

Seeing you march down that hill

Strumming and taking

Big steps

Like there was no fear of falling

A ditty’s a ditty, my love

But the way you sing it--

Well, that’s what it tells

It’s the singer

Gives us the truth

Not the song

We had your mother’s song

At her funeral

But it was a song

For a new world

One without her in it

Nothing glad about that

But nothing so scary either

For didn’t she give us her grace

Before she left?

Didn’t she bless

This land

With sweet harmony?

Didn’t she give me you

And her life

And all the love

That ever was?

And won’t we have next year

To take all that

And do something with it?

That’s what I thought

When they put down her roses

And I saw you

Pick up

Her guitar