Thoughts On My Cousin's Funeral (Poem One)

Healthy Hellos.
God awful Goodbyes.

Rows and Rows and Rows of eyes,

All peering over the wooden sunset of a coffin
To see a mannequin
represent my cousin,
I don't remember him
Purple
But I see him prayerfully slumped at the ledge's foot
Like an honest Christian
Dear Christian.

An accidental bird for 120 feet
Forgot he didn't have wings
Poor thing.

It is amazing how they say his name
But never mention his flesh

Give it up for Jesus.

He put my grief in his all encompassing pocket
Before I could play with it.

Religion,
You take
But I swear to God you never give.

A letter read by your brother
I'll never forget
Can you forgive?
A brother who loved you alive
But loves a book now you're dead.

Oh Christian,
Your mall window head
Made to display what's left.
Your images should not accompany this plastic
remake.
The images kill the fake,

They cut your corpse to pieces.

Your sister
That blonde twig
Trying to be a tree in the company she's in.

Oh God let her be!

I nearly wept when she greeted me.

Healthy Hello to her,
God awful Goodbye to her too.

I want to kill all the Goodbyes,

But there will always be funerals,

And Rows and Rows and Rows of eyes.