Peaceful company - a ballad in prose

Richard was homeless

and slept in a small park

just outside St.Andrews cemetery

so he could use the toilets

in the funeral hall

and wash himself.

One day when he returned from there,

he noticed an old lady

carrying heavily on a wreath.

He offered to help her carry it,

but she was suspicious.

One heard so much

about lonely cemeteries and old ladies.

But after looking him up and down,

she gave him the wreath and went ahead.

He followed her

to a marble mausoleum with an iron door

and a brass plate above it with the name McGrath.

She said it was the family mausoleum

and unlocked it.

He handed her the wreath

and discreetly withdrew

to sit on a bench nearby.

After a while she returned and said:

"Here are the sarcophagi of my husband and his brother,

and soon it will be my home too.

The dead are peaceful company

but they also don't like rain and wind.

I left the door unlocked for you."