November 13 in the Month of All Souls

The old men used to sing
And lifted a brother
Carefully
Out the door
I used to think they
Were born
Knowing how to
Gently swing
A Casket
They shuffled softly
Eyes dry
More awkward
With the flowers
Than with the widow
After they'd put the
Body in
And stood around waiting
In their
Brown Suits

-Alice Walker in Petunias and Other Poems

Time was when pall bearers were always men, and only men. Today, men and women, young and old, take up the task of bearing the casket of a loved one into and from the church and then from hearse to grave. Bearing the dead to their place of rest is an ancient and solemn task, one which cannot help but lead the bearers to consider the weight of death that shadows their own unknown future.

It's a bittersweet burden this honorable guard lifts up, carrying a relative or friend to church for the last time and then to a place of rest from which God alone has the voice to waken from the sleep of death to life that never ends.