Poem - We Sat In Shiv'ah

‘We sat in Shiv’ah   A Malawian funeral'       

So we sat in humility, we humbled ourselves before G-d
And we remembered the day we came out of our mother's womb
And we remembered we are but dust to return to the earth.
So we sat with our heads bow down looking into the dust we were created from
As we sat in humility with the sun beating on our heads we remembered Job,
His loss, his suffering his pain and so we poured out our hearts to our creator
With the sun beating on our heads.
In humility, we sung ashes to ashes dust to dust remembering whence we came from.
So we sat with Job, in shiv’ah we sat for seven days and seven nights on the ground, in silence, in humility with heavy hearts.
In sorrow, we remembered our mother and the womb we once came out of only to return to the earth and not to our mother's womb, never to feel the tenderness of our mother.
So sat on the ground in humility and humbled ourselves our eyes filled with tears and sorrow in our hearts.
Humbly we sat in shiv’ah with the sun beating on our heads.

Catherine Sekwalor
27/8/2013,
Lilongwe,  Malawi