After the burial
there’s no cortege.
Everyone speeds
to the widow’s home
where a neighbor
has volunteered
to await delivery
of the herring, lox, whitefish,
bagels, pumpernickel, biali

Eat Eat, they urge the widow,
but her body’s liquid
has poured out of her eyes
so she can’t swallow.

She listens
to their jokes,
their vacation plans

She wants them to go home,
but after a lifetime
she’s learned
if she tells the truth,
she’ll end up all alone.

by Rochelle Natt