Two Visits In One Day
We’re going to the cemetery to visit
some dead relatives, Mother said, & on the way
back we’ll stop over at your aunt’s house.
It’s good practice to mix the living
with the dead. Otherwise, we’d end up
either being bored at the cemetery, or if
we stayed too long at her house, we’d wish
that she was dead. This way by doing
two things in one day we can do something fun
the next weekend, like go to the beach.
If your aunt keeps talking too much, like she
usually does, we’ll tell her that we just got
back from the cemetery, & that should shut her up.
She never goes there, & it shows, because
the more you visit the dead the less you have to say.
~Hal Sirowitz