There ain’t no funerals
During a pandemic
One more way it tries to break you
Cuz even if you don’t catch it
You can still let it take you

Ain’t no gatherings
No luncheon
No flights
No so and so didn’t show slights
Ain't no viewings or no burials
No veteran fly-over ariels
No hugs from relatives you barely know
From the freshest to the very old
No sharing shots or passing joints
No late night jams
No lucky coins

No dressing up the body
No jazz club crawls
There’s only texts
And calls
And walls

No flipping through his dresser drawers
That haven't ever changed
No helping your brothers
Get the furniture rearranged

No parts of the house to trigger
All the laughter and the pain
No pulling back the rug
To see the stain

No losing it in public and causing a scene
Only grieving alone
in your home
In quarantine

No final visit
No saying goodbye
No holding your mother to cry

My daddy died
But I can't see him
It's hard to be all carpe diem
When nothing happens for a reason
I'm how he is survived

I'm agnostic but God rest him
Was it the virus? They did not test him
The weight of life finally did best him
But ain't no funeral

Maybe this summer
Maybe the fall
I wonder if it will happen at all
It feels like all my feelings stalled
When there ain't no funerals