Sit Shiva

[Verse 1]
My mother, describing her mother, fought back tears
It's weird, I thought, the intimacy
Of seeing someone try not to cry in close-up on a screen

[Verse 2]
Cousin Lincoln told a story about the Pietà
That he saw at the Metropolitan Museum
And after a silence of some time, grandma turned to him and said
"You know, I think of myself as a Jew but I really love Jesus"

[Refrain]
And we sit cross-legged on the edge of the bed
Leaning into the laptop to hear what's just been said
In the manner of a modern family honoring the dеad

[Verse 3]
Aunt Susan
In her one-room schoolhouse dang grandma's favoritе songs
Simple hymns of love and loss
And though her connection was unstable
She was able to get her message more or less across

[Refrain]
We sit cross-legged on the edge of the bed
Leaning into the laptop to hear what's just been said
In the manner of a modern family honoring the dead

[Verse 4]
At the end of the afternoon
Grandma's grief-shattered husband
She'd met in the fall of 1939
Milkshake at the Automat in Morningside Heights
Before he was shipped off to Europe to fight
Fifty years, not a word, not a sight
'Til the touchtone phone rang in 1995
"Raymond, it's Judith, my husband has died"
Went back to New York, and they gave it a try
And the photographs of great-grandchildren multiplied
These two ancient lovers walking side by side
His body ravaged, and hers turned to light
He raised his hand to speak at last
And everyone held their breath or gasped
As he said, "Goodbye, my darling, goodbye"