Dorothy Parker
Condolence
They hurried here, as soon as you had died
Their faces damp with haste and sympathy
And pressed my hand in theirs, and smoothed my knee
And clicked their tongues, and watched me, mournful-eyed
Gently they told me of that Other Side
How, even then, you waited there for me
And what ecstatic meeting ours would be
Moved by the lovely tale, they broke, and cried

And when I smiled, they told me I was brave
And they rejoiced that I was comforted
And left to tell of all the help they gave
But I had smiled to think how you, the dead
So curiously preoccupied and grave
Would laugh, could you have heard the things they said