You say you're Mother's oldest friend?
So long you were away and so far.
Of course you didn't know
I buried her yesterday.

But, come, let me show you my Mother's grave.
Look how soft the flowers curve and bend
Around the slab this is so attractively rectangular -
And laid so straight.
See the way the light exposes
So strikingly the grain of the stone.
And here, with this magic microscope you can observe
As busy insects ply the loam
Beneath the forest of the grass that grows beside.

The sun shone bright the day she died.
I'm glad of that -
For she would have wanted it that way.
She lived, you know, for others.
Some said to her
In the nursing home,
She had been a door mat
To sell her everything
To please her offspring -
By she just loved us.
She was like that, you know -
Always.
She wanted it that way.

If we adjust this focus
Just a bit
We can discover
Beneath this stone and coffin cover
Another lovely thing - About mother.

She wears a dainty pink peignoir
Lined with silk.
What fine embroidering!
How kind of innocent its color
And appropriate for Mother.
I choose it myself.
She would have wanted it that way.

She had a grand funeral -
All my friends were there.
There were flowers and flowers
And cards and card
And telegrams and visitors
And gobs of food -
A procession six blocks long.
It was so gratifying
For all those people to be so
Sympathetic about her dying.
It comforted me so.
It would have made her happy
Too, if she had know.
She would have wanted it that way.

Are you amused to see her glasses on?
She always wore them
From daylight to dark.
And her thimble there on her finger
Is how it was so often while she lived.
It was my idea. She would want it near.
And there it is
In its usual place.
It is the little things that count.
I'm sure she would have wanted it that way.

The mortician did a great job on her.
Look how he accented the sweep of lash upon her cheek.
I bought that kind of mascara last week.
And notice how those wrinkles and pock marks
Almost don't show,
And how her mouth corners are titled up so sweetly.
He used, he said, a special injected gel.
And her hair, how silver polished clean.
He used a new shampoo.
I'm so glad she could have it that way.

Well,
There she is
And all is done.
Thanks for dropping by.
Come again sometimes.
I have an appointment soon
To hear the reading of the will
At four this afternoon,
And its twenty minutes till.
I must not be late,
Mother wouldn't want it that way.

April 19, 1982