After Lorca
—for M. Marti
The church is a business, and the rich
are the business men.
When they pull on the bells, the
poor come piling in and when a poor man dies, he has a
wooden
cross, and they rush through the ceremony.
But when a rich man dies, they
drag out the Sacrament
and a golden Cross, and go doucement, doucement
to the cemetery.
And the poor love it
and think it's crazy.
by Robert Creeley
from Contemporary American Poetry
Penguin Books, 1962
.