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 ©
Freddie Robinson Jr.
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