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