Falmouth Funeral Blues

Day 28: "Music features heavily in human rituals and celebrations. We play music at parties; we play it in parades, and at weddings. In her poem, OBIT [Music], Victoria Chang describes the role that music played in her mother’s funeral. Today, we challenge you to write a poem that involves music at a ceremony or event of some kind."

Falmouth Funeral Blues

Don't ask me what hymns were chosen,
What I sang, in my triple forked grief. 
All I remember is the rawness of silent tears
Shed at the hollow words I could not believe
When they spoke of the better place;
Her loss of the years she should have lived;
The new hole at the heart of our family.
Those hymns with their empty promises were endured.
Comfort came from the love, and the sorrow,
Reverberating round the packed church,
Every pew full, with more standing round the edges,
Bearing witness to the woman I knew only as Mum.


© Copyright 2025. Chris Auger. All Rights Reserved

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