The Strength of a Human

The Strength of a Human

(Everyone is beautiful at a funeral)

I sit on my floral pattern chair

completely glazed over

and straining to see over the tall man in front of me,

here at the funeral

Each time someone stumbles in 

they are met with a sympathetic, bleary eye.

To my right one row up and across the aisle 

is a woman who takes up a chair and a half

and a husband next to her who's arm never leaves her shoulders 

And I'm struck and I'm wide eyed 

at the realization and the anatomy 

of a human

And the anatomy of a human is this:

that love has no face nor shape nor name

but can and should manifest itself in all

And she's not gross and it's not absurd

it's what they've found and who they are

and the more you love something 

the more beautiful it becomes

It's overtaking and knows no mold 

no specifics, no fit.

It's here my ignorance is slapped,

and I cannot fathom the love all around me

and what it could ever feel like 

to parent a child 

or be a wife to a husband

It's here that everyone is beautiful 

everyone is pure

And what a human can endure is breathtaking...

2004