First Funeral

His brother’s casket had been closed because
the injuries he suffered were extreme.
Even his sister, a registered nurse,
didn’t look to identify his corpse.
Instead, his rings and his drivers license
testified as to his identity.

If he cried, he knew that would be selfish,
expressing only his feeling of loss.
He approached the mahogany coffin
finished like the arms of the rocking chair
where, since the age of two, watching TV,
he would fall asleep in his brother’s lap.

And suddenly his eyes were flooded blind,
rocked once more by polished mahogany.

By: James Ph. Kotsybar

James Ph. Kotsybar is the first poet honored by NASA to be published to another planet, with verse orbiting Mars and appearing in the Hubble Mission Log. Published across the U.S. and six countries, he won NASA’s Centaur 50th Anniversary Art Challenge and The State Poetry Society of Michigan award. He has performed internationally, staged large narrative poems in L.A., and created R.A.I.L. (Readers And Interested Listeners). a poetry project connecting poets and audiences from Japan to Santa Barbara, including an onstage collaboration under Allen Ginsberg’s direction.