In One City

I know a funeral when I walk into one I can tell between a funeral and a burial They are two entirely different artworks One is done on grand canvas, with drunken strokes Of sashaying brush and bleeding paints; The other is done on mere sand, with foot and hand, Forming sandcastles built by toddlers. I know too well because I have my senses Intact after the last funeral I attended on a gambolling coast. I should know because I participated in the burial of a Village lout, a wretched lord, so grand with contumely. Funeral lasts for days and contains the sounds of cannons And other elements of ceremonies, so loud, so eloquent, So ceremonious —full of man and illiterate beasts. A burial, on the other penurious hand, Reeks of haste, attended by a teething crowd — And at times comes with thunder that speaks in jest And a lightning whose light flickers on all things subpar.