My Work in Cable Street, issue 8

by

John J. Dunphy

Illinois Leave-Takings

A senryu series

dad’s visitation
his drinking buddies show up at
the wrong funeral home

her favorite hula-hoop
now encircling
her tombstone

funeral procession
hearse runs over a squirrel

final smoke
dad’s last pack of cigarettes
cremated with him

funeral director asks my age

graveside service
mourners’ eyes tear up
from the fresh-cut grass

dad’s favorite brand —
the cemetery trash barrel
filled with beer cans

post-funeral lunch
an unkempt man
goes back for seconds

broken
the granite heart serving as
a grave marker

opulent in Queen Anne’s lace the potter’s field

John J. Dunphy’s poetry collections include Old Soldiers Fading Away, Zen Koanhead, Touching Each Tree, pagan rites, Bullet Cluster, Stellar Possibilities and Dark Nebulae. He is also the author of non-fiction works such as Unsung Heroes of the Dachau Trials: The Investigative Work of the U.S. Army 7708 War Crimes Group, 1945–1947. He owns The Second Reading Book Shop in Alton, IL, USA