A Poem by Estha Weiner
In Judaism, mourners are considered
to be escorting the dead
Hebrew for ‘funeral,’
for ‘funeral,’ for ‘accompany,’
accompany him or her
to the grave.
No rabbi, no cemetery
worker buries the dead. I do,
you do, we do,
he does, she does, they do,
those in sorrow,
those surrounding the sorrow
honor their bond
with the beloved, gone.
Return the beloved
quickly to the earth,
to its able arms.
The earth will escort
now: the dead
will not be alone.
We will.
Estha Weiner's newest poetry collection is at the last minute (Salmon Poetry, 2019). She is also author of In the Weather of the World (Salmon Poetry), Transfiguration Begins at Home (Tiger Bark Press), The Mistress Manuscript (Asheville Book Works), and co-editor/contributor to Blues For Bill: A Tribute to William Matthews (University of Akron Press). Her poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines, including The New Republic and Barrow Street. Winner of a Paterson Poetry Prize and Visiting Scholar to the Shakespeare Institute, Stratford, England, Estha is the founding director of Sarah Lawrence N.Y. Alumni Writers Nights, and serves on the Advisory Committee of Slapering Hol Press, Hudson Valley Writers Center. She is a professor in the English Department of City College of N.Y, CUNY, and Sarah Lawrence College Writing Institute.