I Ask My Sister's Ghost

Advice for Pallbearers

To make the sound

of your footsteps disappear

requires practice,

a cornfield in late autumn

when the ground is brittle enough

to repeat what it hears.

Best if the six of you can go together

at dusk, find a barn-owl,

a corn-crow will do.

See how close you can get

before the bird startles, observe

the interaction of air and wing.

Before you handle the casket,

borrow your mother's finest crystal

vase, carry it through the crowded parking lot

to the water park, ride the slides.

Let nothing shatter.

The trick is for the coffin to appear

to float, the weight of his failures

superfluous. Let him be known

as a saint, for a few moments,

before he takes up haunting.