My visiting friend and his wife,
who is Catholic, beg me to take them to mass
in St. Patrick’s Cathedral;
as she rises to go to the altar rail
for wine and wafer
I stand to go with her, but she stops me,
informs me I am not included.
Funeral for a friend who died suddenly;
tradition says a person must be buried
within 24 hours after dying,
and earth must be sprinkled on the coffin;
the shovel is passed first to family
then to entitled mourners, among them, my wife;
but in a borrowed yarmulke, I am not included.
