recessional

Unless someone else puts the guitar back
Into its case and then carries it home,
After the final song that celebrates
True love, and the crowd chases the young couple
Walking away, drawing behind a bridesmaid
Who catches the restless eye of the cleaner,
Who drops his cleaning and rushes outside
To get a glimpse of her as, with a wave
Of the hand, she descends into the car
As into the sea, and he who is carrying
The guitar picks up a limp, little rose
From the chaos abandoned by the cleaner,
Since it too might want to be somewhere else,
The last to go from the church is the cleaner.

-- Simeon Dumdum Jr