STAGE OF GRIEF

Contributor: Ron Yazinski

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Other than her psychiatrist,
Nobody wants to see her,

With her hysterical laughter,
Irritating everyone else at the grave site,

Whispering how the pall bearers should wear matching t-shirts
Like a bowling team as they place the body on the straps above the grave;

Asking, as the priest sprinkles holy water,
If the dead man learned to tie his noose by practicing tourniquets;

Telling the old uncle who is crying and trembling with Parkinson’s,
That it’s hardly worth his effort to leave the cemetery.

When one of the mourners whispers for her to be more respectful,
She asks if she should whine like the others, as if life were a continuous 911 call?

This is how her psychiatrist said God made her,
And they’ll just have to accept the way she mourns.


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Ron Yazinski is a retired English teacher, who with his wife Jeanne, divides his time between Pennsylvania and Winter Garden, Fl. His work has appeared in many journals. His one collection is SOUTH OF SCRANTON.