Appalachian Burial

They laid her out
bathed in pink lights
wearing a dress
she wouldn't be
caught dead in,
oh, the irony of it all.
Make-up applied
with too heavy
a hand
trying to disguise
the fact
her liver gave out
way before
her body was ready...
Not the undertakers
most shining moment.
We drove down
to the mountains
to pay our respects
outsiders to our kin
"big city folk"
foreign sounding with strange ways
I asked if she'd
be buried
amongst her kin
high a top
of the mountain-
"No, they said,
she had won a plot for two
from the local radio station
at the new cemetery
on the outskirts of town.."
No, I'm not making this up....
Only down there
would this be an option.
So we trudged
to her new resting place.
Just like the rest of the area,
hilly, billy- goat style.
Precariously in shoes
not meant for off-roading
using others dearly deceased
headstones
as stepping stones
silently praying for forgiveness
for such blatant
disregard
for their dead...
We got together afterwards
to eat and talk
gossiping about
the black sheep
that every family
seems to have...
Nothing seems to change
in their neck
of the world,
the pace is slow,
the air thick with
humidity and simplicity
quiet beauty
to an outsider
such as myself...