Christmas Eve Funeral [judd]

Across the Country Road
(Christmas Eve 1997, Cumminstown PA)

Across the country road
To the country church
Not too far to go
To a Christmas Eve funeral
Ropes of pine boughs
Tied with ribbon, snake
Along the oak trim that
Gram dusted, polished
She lies there now
An oaken box her pew
Does her soul wish
To polish that wood too?

Glory to God

In the graveyard
There is a hole
About the place where
Dick kicked the skunk
A chamber carved into
The limestone soil
Next to Pap
Who dug so many
Holes for oaken boxes;
Circles unbroken

Glory to God

Children with visions of
Santa and Nintendo
Try to stay calm
In clothes they will wear
To church that night
Sad church today
Happy church tonight
Pallbearers wait outside
Honored casket hoisters

Glory to God



A solemn service on a
Chilly winter day
Ground uncovered
Dirt pile waiting
To fall in on top
Of this woman who
Spent her life keeping
Dirt off of things
And then back across
The country road
To the country house

Glory to God

We eat sandwiches and
Kays and Rays chips
And make small talk
With your cousin
While your mother in her
Wig and her sister the
Formerly favorite
Convene with husbands
To look at the will
Sis insisted on the reading
Even though the chamber
Is still not full of dirt

Glory to God

Then back across the
Country road and back
Across the mountain
They go, never for us
To see again.
Not even when,
Within the year,
Another oaken box
Is placed in another
Country church
Across a country road

Gloria in Excelsis Deo