Funerals No Longer Scare Me

Grandpa got a twenty-one gun salute. I shivered, knowing how much he hated guns After Viet Nam The last time he picked one up was in a jungle. Fifty years ago. They are playing taps now. Sad dirge sound. Grandpa liked Johnny Cash and Elvis Both would have been better at his funeral I glare at the soldiers playing taps. Why is this so sad? Grandpa liked happiness. Felt a hand on my shoulder. My grandpa’s hand. No one else ever did this to me. I knew that he knew what I was thinking. We were close. He had taught me to take apart cars And how to be a man. Funerals no longer sad to me.