Consuming Grief

Mourners gather around the fire
To honor those passed away
Consanguines have the duty
To dissect, prepare, decorate
Affines take the burden to devour the flesh
Of the ones that they held dear within their hearts
Familiar body pieces that may have once caressed
Now to be served for consumption
As they have to submit
The beloved body
For dismemberment
Grief intensifies
A fevered chorus of keening and crying
Ritual method to keep spirit from lingering
Several days of decay
Made the corpse so putrid
Stench so overwhelming
Legs and arms
Dead and neck
Placed on sticks
Reluctantly devoured
Eaters of the dead
Heart and liver wrapped in leaves to be roasted
Genitals and intestines thrown onto the fire
Mournful feast continues
Throughout the night
Until the flesh is entirely
Cannibalized
Pathways erased
Scenery soon altered to avoid memories of the deceased
House burnt to the ground
Belongings destroyed
Names to never be
Spoken again