DAY OF THE DEAD POEM

DAY OF THE DEAD POEM

by Aurelia Blue 11/2/14

It started last Friday night
All Hallow's Eve...
My sister came crashing through the door
Move that car! And you too came into Be
We laughed our special laugh
That your Otherworldliness does not occlude
As we remembered together her shrieking once at you
't'was so good to feel you near again
To know you are here too
In this space where our baby boy wears a fleece lamb suit
And Godfathers still sit down to family dinners as cold leaves rush by
The dog barking in the window seat

The Doppelganger stopped us dead
At least for the moment, our daughter and I forgot to breathe
How could you be standing there at Walmart?
In your Mt. Dew shirt
Holding hands with some other little boy
A stranger's wedding band ordaining that it really isn't you
But those eyes, that hair, that walk... even that stare
You're not really gone. You're still here.
Yes, you are still here
And later when you sent The Guy to my door
A warhead candy in his hand
His shoulder soft for loving more with my wet hair in moonlight shining

Another twin, the '88 Crown Vic passed us at the road
Where one direction, I once lived, the other leading back to your old home
We sat in the box seat they built after you were gone
But near the window sill from which on the Dawdi Bench we always watched the world go by
He would preach of who God says He is, but first a word of prayer
Those little precocious ones thanking Him for making little black bears
No words of Holy Saints and All Souls remembered
Yet stained glass portals reflecting the Trinity on the wall
Our boy pointing out into the sunshine waving to you as you pass by
You are the sun and rain and clouds and more as bows of color set in the skies
All the day the sunshine blazed as the fennels swayed
Prairie of Bones my Home once again

And as the darkness set in the earth in brilliant flamingo pink dissolved
Until total darkness came
But no fear as the moon's light lantern appeared
Like the Harvest Moon the modern troubadour unplugged sang
Driving across the grasslands as September turned October died
Fields are naked dark and swallow up the sky where snow will soon abide
Lights blazed on "The Circuit" as the Children of the Disenchantment came home
I was startled at first when I felt you come near
A lost daughter on each hand as his and my little twins clung shyly round your legs
Even the dog and our beloved yore cats; all your energy with me
My family full surrounding no breath unloved partake

This is The Day Of The Dead and we celebrate