Peonies Series #5, Pastel, by John Cummings
When You Say Good-bye
When you are in a coffin
Surrounded by flowers
And outside, a mild wind shakes the leaves
It is time to decide, yes, someone or something,
Will say, “Well, did you do the good deed?”
And you will in your deep sleep awaken
Hardly had left that town at the turn
Of the road with the rusted wheat silos
Hardly had said good-by to Aunt Flor
Who raised you after the fire
She putting clean socks on your dead feet
After your body was lovingly bathed.
Had lived through the Depression
Survived a dust storm in Texas
And a shooting in Amarillo
Worked as a roustabout
Oil in the fingernails
Hair wired as hard as steel.
“Well, was it a good life?” the voice asks,
And you say, “I don’t know, hardly had time
To contemplate it. Besides I had liver problems
Inherited or drank too much, but I praised
The Lord every chance I had. And sang
His praises. But I was also a forgetful cuss,
And I want to rest now.”
______________
Zeke Sanchez
Review by Kathryn de Leon
The title and first two lines of the poem are powerful. The poet poses two important questions about our lives: did we do good deeds, and did we have a good life? They say we are given a life review when we die, and some of the dead person’s life is shared with us, it sounds like it was a hard life, the depression, difficult times in Texas, working on an oil rig, liver problems. The implication is that their “good deed” was praising the Lord. But in the end, none of it matters, we will forget everything and just want to rest.