May God Meet Him With Gladness.... Poem by RIC BASTASA

we buried a friend,
co-worker today at high noon
on such a very hot weather
when all the grasses wilted
and the hills are colored
dead and brown.

i delivered part of the
eulogy, describing him
as "soft-spoken" a peacemaker,
very considerate and
deep in thinking, and that

he had been sick for quite
a time, always short of the
red blood cells, which his
wife accordingly quoting a
doctor, that it is "aplastic
anemia" but which i really
suspect was leukemia,

and i remember him, but which
i did not mention in the
eulogy, that he really wanted
to live more, as we drank to life
with beer and some Chinese sweet-sour
pork as viand, less the Japanese
rice,

he envies me for my appetite for
life, as i am a voracious eater
of simple pleasures, such as food
and drinks and lots of
vacations, which others call as
time wasted,

i look at him with all pity,
as he wasted his life in so much
serious work, and devotion to family,
which to me, sometimes must be
set aside, as we too have to
devote our own time to ourselves
alone.

now he is inside this coffin,
fully decorated, and made handsome
to cover his wasted face and
wasted body, as his family, his wife
and grand-kids, surround him,
weeping and mourning.

i ended my eulogy with, " he lived
a good life, he was a model husband,
father and employee, servant of the
people, and that he was such a
great loss of those who remain to
be alive, who, must, with all reason
must live still, continue with that
strength, and determination to be
happy humans.

may his journey to heaven be smooth.
may God meet him with gladness.