by Désirée Jung
In Lieu of Flowers
Talking funerals, how we’d need
to keep the mourners entertained,
we pondered what boxed set
best set off the oblong box.
You wanted a cranked up
Shane croaking, “Let me go, boys.”
For me, Satchmo singing a gravelly
St. James Infirmary Blues.
But it was really our notions
about heaven we worked through.
The songs we choose for others
were those that most pleased us in life:
perfect tracks we’d have reverb
through that echo chamber six feet under,
offerings at the all-nighter’s end,
grave goods, lingering, immaterial.
Chris Bullard is a retired judge who lives in Philadelphia, PA. In 2022, Main Street Rag published his poetry chapbook, Florida Man, and Moonstone Press published his poetry chapbook, The Rainclouds of y. His poetry has appeared recently in Jersey Devil, Stonecrop, Wrath-Bearing Tree, Waccamaw and other publications. He was nominated this year for the Pushcart Prize.
Désirée Jung is an artist from Vancouver, Canada. She has published translations, poetry, and fiction in several magazines around the world, taking part in many artists residencies. Her series of video poems were screened in various film festivals and won several prizes. Her nonfiction story “Dispatches from the Womb” was nominated for a 2023 Pushcart Prize. For more information, please check her website: www.desireejung.com.