[Matt Q]

Hi John,

I could swear I'd read this, or a version of it, before. I particularly remember the Sycamore Street and the unnamed tree part, and liking the idea of a non-Sycamore on Sycamore street.

I enjoyed the poem. The somewhat desultory, detached, weary tone. The church that used to be a store. The N not enquiring about the tree. The few attendees at the funeral, who anyway do not believe in an afterlife, and whose grief is only slight.

I don't have much by way of nits. I agree with James that it could be worth looking at some of the line breaks. I wondered about this:

or even a small factory, but now it had been turned
into a place where people gathered to send away souls
no one believed were there. I had to turn around

it would emphasise the turning over the place, would emphasise the repetition of "turned"/"turn", assuming that's intended to be doing something. And there's maybe more impact/misdirection if the non-belief in souls is delayed to the next line.

to the small church where a few silent people waited
to hear a short sermon made faint by a slight grief.

I really like the close. I do wonder, though, if there's maybe one or two too many modifiers. My reading is that grief makes the sermon faint in the sense that they don't hear it as much -- its quieter maybe -- because their senses are clouded slightly by that grief (only slightly because it's only faint grief). I also wondered if "fainter" might work. That perhaps the sermon is already somewhat faint, given a celebrant/minister who is largely detached, unaffected.

best,

Matt