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Obituary Oblations

Pictures of the dead, pamphlets of the deceased They’re passed out at every funeral, where the broken hearted grieve ... handed out like business cards This strange belief is a superstitious tradition that truly mystifies me There’s a lot of underground networking going on: People taking flyers with the logo of the skull and bones Obituary oblations ... pass the wormy paper plate Dead divinations ... seance sessions that always run late Eulogy celebrations ... coffin cake pleasures for you to partake Then toss a little dirt of the burial, and a leftover paper bone in the backseat Invitation to a corpse extended, warm lips kissing a cold mouth Shaking hands with the dead, welcoming them into your house Grave robbers going against what their voodoo belief says: it’s bad juju, opening your home ... letting restless spirits in to roam It’s so sad living scared, afraid to let the dead go Giving them room and board, urn ashes in a vase bed facing the window Superstitious shades filter sepulchre shadows Obituary dreams is a dark moonbeam that don’t glow Jesus Christ is the only True Light who rose from the dead Everybody else is waiting instead Waiting in the grave ... so when the robbers be coming, wave them away Because that obituary memory ain’t gonna get your loved one raised I see the long, sad faces, and it hurts me to tell them the truth Yet, I have to tell them — Superstitions must be condemned! His wife Elizabeth ain’t lounging in heaven, your brother Pete’s not sitting by the pearly gate My dearly departed mama ain’t looking down over my shoulder Her only son is not firmament sleeping over They’re all still in the grave; Resurrection time ain’t arrived yet, heavenly reservations are still being made So don’t pass me no obituary party paper plates, with those dead pictures, names, places and dates I’m not eating any of that decaying devil cake, my oblation obligation is to the living always I’ll never date the dead ... then take them home Don’t be spiritually misled — Erecting shrines for the dead, gallery full of pictures of the dead Giving more charity to the dead than the living instead is just so obituary wrong Those dead oblations are the type of gifts that need to be tossed out of your home Awake, awake sleepy head, get out of that earthen bed Remember what God said: I’m the God of the living, not the dead!

Copyright © | Year Posted 2017




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Date: 10/24/2017 9:07:00 PM
Very interesting read. Death reminds us that life is brief, but the resurrection reminds us about the brevity of death.
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