friendship begins when small
but ends with that one call
two in a relationship, one remains
the other long-departed now
family per request cremates
scattered where she said her vows
funerals, funerals on the life stage
overdose, suicide, hate,
heart attacks, occasionally the age
grieved as in a drunken state
many left-behind children and husband
missing a mother and a wife
mourning their loss, living no longer grand
carrying on, on the stage of life