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The Funeral Director
After each funeral,
we take the cut flowers
that have nowhere
else to go
to care facilities
where the joy of bright blooms
and fresh greenery, for some,
may be short-lived.
I will see their frail bodies
soon enough for me
and far too soon
for many of them.
Our pledge
is all about respect,
a special reverence
which each of us deserves
and truly our greatest gift,
our product, our service,
the pride we take in our work.
St. Joseph of Arimathea, our patron,
your loving hands helped
make the Lord’s final
arrangements, the herbs
and salves, the fresh linens.
I have never had one of mine
come back after any amount
of days, no stones
rolled aside.
The next one is
always waiting,
the last one
now grey ash
or sleeping beneath
the lilies, six feet down.
- John Peter Beck
Raised in a milltown on Lake Michigan in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, John Peter Beck is a recently retired professor in the labor education program at Michigan State University where he co-directs Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives, a program that focuses on labor history and the culture of the workplace. His poetry has been published in various journals that include The Seattle Review, Another Chicago Magazine, The Louisville Review, and Passages North.