Sky Burial

I married the wrong brother.
This is what my grandmother said to me.
I married the wrong brother, see.
We met, my girlfriend and me
we was downtown, it was Saturday and that’s
what young women did then
and this gentleman came up to us
he was handsome and smartly dressed
his nails were clean and he had the most
beautiful camel-coloured wool coat
and a hat. He was wearing a hat.
And that man, that handsome man, well
he sort of had a crush on my friend, had
been waiting to ask her out, but she
wanted to double-date and didn’t want
me to feel left out. So I did, I went
with that man’s brother. I went
to the dance and I went, I went
with the man’s brother. Your grandfather.
So as you can see. I married
the wrong brother.

Originally published in The Prairie Journal, No. 45., September 2006.