Professor Marva Stewart's Funeral Service at Gilbert-Lambuth Chapel, Paine College
       

The spire pierces a heaven
so blue, the clouds so white.
It's a beautiful day to say
goodbye. She was a spine

of this place—how will it stand
now? How we slouch forever
into silence one day, just like that.
The smell of coffee, a wedge
of orange bursting across
the tongue, then gone
before dinner. The grieving

all favor in our own clothes.
July's humid air clings
as it always has, blurring
the difference between sweat
& tears. A visitor recognized
by only a few, I used to live here.

So did she—this was her home,
her everything. Thankful,
she didn't call it burden—
she named it Grace. Astonishing
how caskets make everything
clear—a clarity (have mercy)
that doesn't last too long,
allowing us to move on.

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Copyright © 2020 Kamilah Aisha Moon All rights reserved
from Southern Indiana Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission