by Paul Faruq Kiefer

During the height of rush hour on Friday afternoon, four Black men carried a casket into the intersection of Rainier Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard and placed it on an awaiting table. A loudspeaker on the corner blasted Boyz II Men’s “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday” passing drivers glanced, a few of whom honked in support or to express their condolences. The pall bearers, joined by a woman in a black veil, paused in front of the casket as volunteers with cars, bikes and trash cans blocked the intersection for a moment of reflection. Then the group picked up the coffin again and returned it to a pair of sawhorses set up in front of The Original Philly’s, where a group of fifty-or-so stood watching.