Do Not Pray No Prayers No Fuss Poem by Terence George Craddock

he said not to pray
when he dies
no prayers no fuss
reason given?
interpretation up to us

no Mass to be sung
no Kaddish to be said
nothing sung nothing spoken
on the day when he is dead

he said perhaps one day
when the weather's mild
serene his Matilde would
go walking in Montmartre
with Pauline with a wreath

offering flowers immortelles
perhaps her hand
plucked wild
perhaps purchased

from undertakers
immortelles left
on his lonesome grave
a caring custom close
family normally do

she'll come to dress
his lonesome grave
she'll sigh ‘Oh,
poor man.' moist

sadness in her gaze
it is a shame
'I'm so high up...
I've no chair
for my sweet...

not a stool to offer
her...
Ah she trips
with weary feet!

Don't, my sweet,
plump child,
Make your way
back home on foot,
Behind the iron railings,

The cabs are waiting, look.'

The poem 'Do Not Pray No Prayers No Fuss' is heavily infused with interactive lines from the poem 'Gedächtnisfeier', by the poet Heinrich Heine; to give Heinrich his intended voice beyond the grave.