THE END OF JOY

joy's soul clung to her body
fearful, i thought,
of what lay beyond
and she lingered
almost a week
until the flesh
was just too weak
to hold her
and shook her loose
with one last rattling gasp
and i swear
the room brightened
in that second

we all were too worn
by then for the preacher's spiel,
having remembered
all we could
and told the best stories
and laughed and cried
over what made her
who she'd been
and so a few of us didn't go the funeral
and some folks frowned upon us
but we knew joy
would be okay with it --
we'd paid our respects

at the bar, open mic,
bill dedicated one to joy
and then luce sang one
and that was pretty much it

joy was gone