What to Do After the Funeral

Join voices

with the blackbirds & 

starlings, call until rain slaps  

the leaves, your face, the windows of home. 

Hurricane 

winds, but try to sleep  

as if rocked by a boat in 

open ocean, riding out a storm.  

Nothing or

everything matters 

now, so hold the promises 

of your dead in a glass jar, watch as 

they spark &

clamor. Somehow still

burning, still warming your hands, 

still fuelling a fire despite you,

despite death. 

On a moonless night,

unscrew the lid & release

them like embers carried by the wind. 

---

Bethany Jarmul

Bethany Jarmul is the author of two chapbooks and one poetry collection. Her writing was selected for Best Spiritual Literature 2023, nominated for The Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, and Wigleaf Top 50. She lives near Pittsburgh.