When I was a kid in Honolulu
Every funeral in town it seemed
Involved a huge motorcade
That moved by in slow motion
There’d be police on motorcycles
Escorting countless numbers of cars
Always including a single black hearse
All of them with their headlights on
Traffic in every direction would be stopped
By the familiar sound of sirens
Accompanying the dead person
To a graveyard whether nearby or far away
One time when we were stopped
To allow the procession to pass
I asked my dad why
He’d always turn off the car radio
He said it was to show respect
For the life of deceased
His acknowledgment
Of this solemn moment
When they had finally gone by
Traffic would proceed as usual
My dad would turn the radio back on
As the scene faded away behind us
Lanning Lee 