Long time passed

After the service was over

the family
all bar one
returned to the house

There’d been no break in
during the out
due in part to
the guardian neighbour

Did you hear
asked everyone
to everyone else
how the Vicar
made that awful speech

and they’d all heard
but agreed
that it was better than
the funeral, when her name
was wrong.

Tea, then and ham sandwiches.

You can’t bury a relative without
refreshments, and you have to
eat it from their own
best china

all afternoon and
into the night.
For, after all,
when else are we together but
marriages, and funerals

all other time being
our own
and the small world being so
big, when it really matters.

In the nightfall, having successfully
avoided seeing too many
ghosts
we drive home

voices quiet in the car
but aware, sometimes,
that this was
our final visit.

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Tonibuns
16 years ago

Fabulous.