I will teach you my townspeople
How to perform a funeral--
For you have it over a troop
Of artists--
Unless one should scour the world--
You have the ground sense necessary

See! the hearse leads
I begin with a design for a hearse
For Christ's sake not black--
Nor white either--and not polished!
Let it be weathered--like a farm wagon--
With gilt wheels (this could be
Applied fresh at small expense)
Or no wheels at all:
A rough dray to drag over the ground

Knock the glass out!
My God--glass, my townspeople!
For what purpose? Is it for the dead
To look out or for us to see
How well he is housed or to see
The flowers or the lack of them--
Or what?
To keep the rain and snow from him?
He will have a heavier rain soon:
Pebbles and dirt and what not
Let there be no glass--
And no upholstery, phew!
And no little brass rollers
And small easy wheels on the bottom--
My townspeople what are you thinking of?