Death is messy and time-consuming and exhausting for the survivors. Death is confusing and maddening. At Blunderbuss Magazine, Essay Liu, a Taiwanese writer, documents her father’s death and the rituals in the days following. Translated by Kevin Tang.

Day three, 5 AM: coffin laying ceremony.

The funeral home prepares bricks of tissue paper, paving a thick cottony bed in your coffin. The funeral director says now’s the time to tell your father — the softer his bed, the sweeter his dreams. We parrot his chant — the softer your bed, dad, the sweeter your dreams. We refuse to think of how it aims to soak up your decay.