Day of the Dead
A Celebration

Let us celebrate the Day of the Dead:
Jesus coming down from the cross,
the decapitation of the saints.
I am the skull resting
at the feet of Jesus, dancing
in the hearts of lovers. My wife
steals my pain, her nails
torturing my flesh. She lights
another candle to the Virgin.
I taste the shadows of life,
visions of skulls rummaging
about in wooden graves,
soldiers dying in each other’s arms,
widows kneeling…