The Funeral
I went to my own funeral
They were playing that celestial music
The notes rang out as time dragged down
I slowly climbed the stairs
And every one of those stairs was sound solidified
Like an organ made of stone
Then the coffin came into view
It was shining brighter than the Sun
But not quite as bright as the Moon
And I was unafraid ‘cos I’d been here before so many times
and I knew I’d be coming back
again
Then a woman started dancing
And I felt her rhythm when it crawled up my feet
And became my rhythm too
We were both born in Gauteng
And the earth roared under our feet
I could see the sky through somebody’s eyes
But the eyes were not my own
Then we stretched our umbilical cords
From the Hillbrow Tower to Devil’s Peak
Where she played her silver bow
And every one of those notes rang true
And my heart stopped beating
‘Cos I didn’t give a damn
If I lived or died
All that mattered was her and her sound
As they lowered me into the ground
So say “cest la vie” to the broken-hearted
Say “bon voyage” to the newly-weds
Always say “I love you” to the one
You wake up next to
But O my sweet little darling
Don’t you ever say “forever”
Forever is a very short time
December 29th, 2007 at 8:06 pm
This poem is also the main theme in Kaganof’s film “Suprematist composition number 36″ and in his performance “Shooting Gallery”, directed by Catherine Henegan last year. We hear in both works the same poem, told by its author.
January 2nd, 2008 at 10:31 pm
[…] Introduction by Dick Tuinder Aryan Kaganof – The Stones Poet Foreword Pick Up Finale Kentucky Fried Poem My Father Drive-thru The Funeral The Catz Pyjamas Joan of Arc Beethoven The Heart of a Woman Two for Kate At Cool Runnings with Chirsty Seer Ten Pages Girlfriend (ex) Sea Point Beach, Midnight, Full Moon, 1999 Peeping Tom Ennead Six Stones Shooters Pick Up Line Let me In Rimbaud Breaks His Silence A Touch of Madness Nightmare Hamlet Again Angellogical Lament Oasis Namibian Echoes God Untitled #47 Shattered Advice For My Daughter Another Pick Up Attempt Ratz Passage Untitled #433 Untitled #9 Rough Justice Tit For Tat A Deadly Message Colesberg Odyssey Dream Joan Of Arc Again The Other X-Rated The Freedom Fighter The Trade Barcelona Mid Life Crisis A New Mother Love Song True Love Bergie’s Lament CB Goodbye Willy Greyhound Blues So-called Whites Holy Ghost The Flood The Blasphemer Pick Up Routine Goya Untitled #266 Invitation Angel Again The Riddle The Wind Is Always Now Prayer The Wedding Aryan Kaganof and Treason The Inheritance The Re-Invented Man Diotima and an Ibis visit Plotinus The Word Poems The Hymn Of The Robe of Glory The Poet and His Murderer (Redeemed) The Beach Colesberg Again Mourning The 23rd Litany of Bugs Chakra Silence 3 Bar Scenes The Ballad of the Western Hotel, Ontdekkers Rd Stones Again Goodbye About the Author’s Death Poetic License […]