Isn't a brief tune better than inglorious silence?

Mama's people were supposed
to be a cut above daddy's,
but figuring out why to any
exactness wasn't easy.
Some of daddy's lived "in sin"
whereas all of ma's, for a long
time anyway, had their proper
documents. At least God was
presumably pleased with that.

Ma's had some community
leaders, albeit remote from us,
a thing pa's family couldn't
dream of so that alone
gave ma's a touch of re-
finement, a clear edge over pa's.

How many families can
boast of having actually
founded a cemetery, now
140 years old?
Ma's last name was so
old in the county that it
had become near-aristocratic,
though lackluster.

Poor pa. As a kid he
was a Huckleberry if you
ever saw one. A funny Finn
at that. To this day it's a
rarity for someone in his
presence to be able to resist
breaking into a wide grin.
But back to ma's folks.
All those years
of reunions when not a
soul dared miss! We
witnessed real love underway
at those events, if only
short-lived.
Anyway, isn't a brief tune
better than inglorious silence?