Synkroniciti is pleased to welcome back poet and writer Daniel Barlekamp, a New Jersey native living in Massachusetts, with “Words Spoken to an Eight-Year-Old in a Funeral Parlor.” Daniel has a knack for confronting issues many of us experienced growing up, the things that get glossed over with a shrug and a “that’s how it is.” Here he explores the memory of a grandmother’s funeral. Funerals tend to be a time of unwanted and tone-deaf attention, of people telling us what we should do or feel. It isn’t so much that they want to hurt us; often they want us to deal with things more quickly than we are able. “Want to touch her?/ No? Why not?/ Come on, give me your hand and// touch her.” Daniel writes with such vulnerability and honesty and he makes us think about our response to people who are grieving. He cultivates our ability to listen, our empathy.
Read “Words Spoken to an Eight-Year-Old in a Funeral Parlor” in Synkroniciti’s “Haunting” issue, available for pre-order here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Daniel Gene Barlekamp is the author of poetry, fiction, and audio drama for adults and young readers. Most recently, his middle-grade fiction has appeared in the anthology The Haunted States of America (Godwin Books/Macmillan, 2024), and his poetry has been translated into Mandarin by Poetry Hall. Originally from New Jersey, Daniel now lives with his wife and son in Massachusetts, where he works in immigration law by day and attends law school by night. Connect with him online at dgbarlekamp.com.