The death knell sounds sonorously.
The mourners dressed decorously
have come to say their last farewell.
Invited by the tolling bell.

Some come to pay their last respects.
Nobody mentions his defects.
An unspoken conspiracy.
A custom universally.

observed by all the human race.
A funeral is not the place
to criticise the newly dead.
Perhaps because we live in dread.

That vengeful ghosts will take offence.
We choose to lie in self defence.

19/09/2009
http: // blog.myspace.com/poeticpiers

ivor or ivor.e hogg

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/just-in-case-9/