Burying Big Mama

Sadie Mae was enlaid in a glass coffin like Eva Peron
so the many who adored her could flock past one last time
take in the face, the beauty, and the wisdom that had kept them for so long, finally free from suffering.
Mama Sissy, Aunt Sadie, Sissy, Mama.
Careful, concerned fingers of her prying daughters lifted the glass case to retrieve her one last time
propped her up in the middle of the living room before the viewing, just beyond the grand piano; the smaller piano set up in the music room,
it would make due for Betty to play.
The mortician's work was shoddy.
Johnnie and Sadie to redo her makeup and nails,
Thelma to press and curl to make her look presentable.
All of her dutiful daughters lifting her once more back into the midst of life and then once again into the belly of the grave, laid afresh in her glass coffin,
visible and ready to be seen,
her daughters
the pallbearers to carry the awful burden.