You walk
along shoulders…
You
walk along shoulders of bamboo groves,
Starlight
treads in your footsteps.
You
go forward with shifting seasons,
Summer
ghosts are left behind.
You
rise as the wind of briefest memory
Pushing
shutters gently open.
You
arrive, fresh rain at the door ajar,
Softly
rustling dry silk.
Your
spirit rests in tranquility at table,
Folding
itself into a napkin.
You
dwell in silence in the deepest part,
Inside
there is only silence.
You
sleep illumined by the guardian moon,
Windless,
the stilling doom.
ALL SOULS’
The day of the dead is short respite for the living.
The tumult of life is stilled by the remembrance of the dead.
The living remembers the dead as the silence of the grass.
The grass is the dead ever present among the living.
The dead have not forgotten that life is breath and water.
They hover in the air, waiting for rain.
Water is the prayers of the living for the thirsty.
The living sometimes forgets, the dead ever remember.
THE COLOR OF DEATH
What is the color of death?
In the West many say black,
Some in the East say white.
Devout Muslims enshroud the dead
In white cotton or linen,
Depositing bodies in graves,
Heads pointed toward Mecca.
Protective white paper encloses
Household shrines in Japan,
Sealing against malignant spirits.
Blue is the sadness of death,
Color of mourning in Korea.
Thai widows mourn in purple,
Same color chosen by Roman Catholics
During Lent to drape in reverence the cross,
Instrument and symbol of the universal death
Of the Son of God.
Those whose livelihood is the dead—
Morticians, coroners, embalmers—might say
Death is gray, cadaver pallor.
Hacking, slicing, packing
Dead animals,
Slaughterhouse workers might say
Death is red, fresh meat.
Buddhists who cremate the dead might say
Death is yellow and orange, purifying flames.
Distant heirs of the ancient Egyptians, or of
South Americans of old—Mayans, Aztecs, Incans—might say
Death is gold, everlasting raiment of the sun.
I say death is multicolored—
Sundry motley opening leaves of a fan,
Forward tumbling acrobats in rainbow costumes,
Multihued children’s picture books,
Mobile animal figure whirligigs,
Variegated wallpaper prints,
Van Gogh sunflowers,
Brazilian toucans,
Australian parakeets,
Octopuses,
neon-like, bursting with emotion,
Pendant
festival lanterns,
Brass
bands marching holiday parades,
Fighting
kites flashing ribbon tails,
Tibetan
prayer flags streaming.
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| Day of the Dead skull |
