Poem 14: Bury me flamboyantly clad

79 Replies

14clad

Bury me flamboyantly clad.
No white silk shroud for me,
no brown and heavy sacking.
The Hawaiian shirt in the bottom drawer might do the trick
although I wouldn’t be seen dead in it while living.

Bury me flamboyantly clad.
The purple underwear perhaps,
with bright pink elastic bands.
You know the one? The faded writing used to read,
“Down dog! Down!” It’s quite unused for years.

Bury me flamboyantly clad.
No naked skin below the naval,
no hatless head with balding patch.
Green golfing trousers and yellow baseball cap.
Unironed one hopes; a bit of plaid; reverse the cap.

Bury me flamboyantly clad.
No history digger in a thousand years
must dig me up for study and say,
“Put this body back in earth.” No! No! He needs must say:
“Holy mackerel! Oh my God! Fetch the glass cabinet!”

To hear the poem read aloud click HERE.

79 thoughts on “Poem 14: Bury me flamboyantly clad”

  2. Cynthia Jobin

    Pure delight, Bruce, pure delight!

    Maybe you should include the poem in your Last Will and Testament, then someone else will have to run around finding a Hawaiian shirt and purple underwear I especially love the cap turned backwards….but if you want to be “viewed” at a wake you’ll also have to request a fully open casket and to be lain as if sleeping on your side, for the full effect.

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  3. thecontentedcrafter

    I have my funeral song list but my clothing list has never been given a thought – now I must rush off and think about that!

    Of course you must go flamboyantly dressed – maybe you could be sat up, baseball cap backward and slightly askew, looking as if you maybe imbibed a trifle too much and will awaken any moment feeling a tad curmudgeonly …………….

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      2. thecontentedcrafter

        Yes Cynthia, I remembered that after I left the message – luckily the memory doesn’t have to be checked at the desk! Also no gold teeth or pacemaker so I should be good to go. Maybe we cremated lot should request that the memorial gatherers be dressed the way we would have been had we chosen burial ……… I can see Bruce dancing to ‘All my life’s a Circle’ in a long flowing tiered skirt with crochet top and cowboy boots …… 🙂

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              1. thecontentedcrafter

                The skirt may be patterned any way you wish – make it out of several Hawaiian shirts for example – and also the cowboy boots can be any colour you choose – my favourite pair in the 90’s were bright red and in the noughties I graduated to a purple patchwork pair which I rather loved!

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  5. arlingwoman

    Love this. It should be in your funeral instructions. Having just come from a seminar on retirement, estate planning, financial planning and funeral instructions are in my whirling brain. The thing is, you should dress this way now if you really want.

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        1. Cynthia Jobin

          I’m with you, Lisa….to pick up on that grey number would be so obvious, and so, so boring.

          On the other hand, the color grey is most fascinating from the point of view of the artist’s pallette, because it is mixed by combining secondaries. There are many more than fifty shades of it, and even the few you can discover if you try to choose a wall paint at the hardware store can confuse you. Grey is beautiful, but it is never just grey. It is also gray.

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          1. arlingwoman

            Yes, it has so many permutations; think of shades of storm clouds (Hurricane Joaquin on the mind), guinea fowl feathers, doves, pavement, eyes, not to mention fur. I take it you have painted or may paint now? When you mix paints, the shades are so infinite. When someone says “it looks like a painting,” I often think about the fact that someone can see a color and somehow capture it or see light and convey it. Goodness. Off on another tangent. I think Grey may be more literary. Agnes Grey, this latest Grey (though not sure it’s literary; haven’t dipped into it) and maybe others. I have thought the e spelling was British and the a spelling was American?

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            1. Cynthia Jobin

              I enjoyed the “loose talk”, and I know the spelling, though US v. British, is easy enough to have become pretty optional. I prefer grey, for a totally irrational reason: my synesthesia sees the letter “e” as somehow more of that coloring than it does the letter “a,” which is somehow closer to red. 🙂

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            1. Bruce Goodman Post author

              One of the kings of France insisted his courtiers wore flamboyant clothing. He appeared in a dark suit and stood out. I would not like you (and the one or two others who came to the funeral if I was lucky) to upstage me!

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