What to Do After the Funeral

Join voices

with the blackbirds & 

starlings, call until rain slaps  

the leaves, your face, the windows of home. 

Hurricane 

winds, but try to sleep  

as if rocked by a boat in 

open ocean, riding out a storm.  

Nothing or

everything matters 

now, so hold the promises 

of your dead in a glass jar, watch as 

they spark &

clamor. Somehow still

burning, still warming your hands, 

still fuelling a fire despite you,

despite death. 

On a moonless night,

unscrew the lid & release

them like embers carried by the wind.