IMBALANCES

This “not a funeral, a memorial service”
Centers a glorious floral champagne-like gush
Of frothy ebullience: peonies, creamy flushed
Orchid and rose, and dogwood–a summer harvest

And tribute earned. But why do I feel the mass
Of blooms is tipped a bit to the side, just barely?
Meanwhile the heads In the pews mirror a fairly
Similar imbalance. The rows of whiteness

Outnumber the youthful yellows and browns and blacks.
Yankee nonagenarians hardly mourn–
they pay respects, concludingly forlorn.
Remember the slanting bar of the orthodox

Cross–a demographic reality
And a Chartres-like divine [asymmetry]

(29, June 26, 1992)