Poem by Jan Glas

that’s not the way it went

To everyone’s amazement the fat lady from next door

once that she had upped and died

just went on talking:

long quotations from old newsreel journals;

especially accounts of the royal family

and the joyous days in May of 1945.

First people thought, the body is still warm,

when it grows stiff her mouth will cramp up tight.

But that’s not the way it went.

She started singing: nursery rhymes

that most people had long ago forgotten,

small gems of innocence and hope.

Cautiously someone began to sing along.

Then someone else, one more. Till everyone was singing.

An accordion was mobilised.