Blighted Sepulchers - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

Blighted Sepulchers

Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them

shall not fall on the ground without your Father.

-Saint Matthew 10:29

One cannot die without permission from the state

A man enters a hospital, and waits
He is dusted off to another, and waits
He is ambulanced to a third, and dies

But he does not have permission from the state

A man cannot be buried without paperwork
There is no paperwork; no one knows what to do
With so many corpses fallen to the ground

One cannot die without permission from the state

No permission is required for refrigeration
No permission is required for a family to grieve
No permission is required to wait for permission

One must not die without permission from the state

But in the beginning, and in the end
At play in the nursery, at work in the fields
In all that follows the generation of a man

God freely grants the joys of eternal life


(In context, “a man” is gender-neutral, and anyway this narrative is one of a specific man, Paul Evdosuk, of happy memory. As Marc Anthony says of Caesar, “He was my friend, faithful and just to me.”)