11 February 2006 | Vol. 5, No. 4
Funeral Procession, Costa Rica
From the Pontiac wagon
mourners slide the casket,
shouldering it the final mile,
disciples again spiriting Christ
to the cave. The tombs from a distance
resemble a beekeeper's aviary,
decay's faintly audible buzz
in the air. Heat forces everything
nearer, a gloved hand squeezing.
On one shoulder the mourners
carry their dead; on the other,
the sky's vast latticework.
About the author:
Daniel Pinkerton is currently enrolled in the MFA program at Penn State University. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Terminus, Redivider, Indiana Review, and Minnesota Review, while reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in American Literary Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Chattahoochee Review, and Pleiades. His fiction has appeared in Quarterly West. He is the recipient of an Academy of American Poets prize and an AWP Intro Journals award.
For further reading:
Browse the contents of 42opus Vol. 5, No. 4, where "Funeral Procession, Costa Rica" ran on February 11, 2006. List other work with these same labels: poetry.
