marlon brando’s corpse
was left forgotten for weeks
by his addled children
after it was embalmed
locked in the dark back room
of a california mortuary
inside a kentucky copper casket
cardboard covered with blue felt
staple gunned polyester cream lining
and aluminum hand rails
but the godfather was bigger than the container
in which he was placed
somebody finally scraped together the cremation fees
one hell of an ending for a man
who in life
filled streetcars with desire
whose funeral was attended
by 30 flower cars
and the heads of the five families