The Dead Have Birthdays
LISTEN NOW
The dead have birthdays
and other days tableaus of scattered imaginings
humming beneath the liquid syllables
of the iron gated graveyard
across from the forsaken old stone church
at the uppermost summit of the lane
Low droning a song of days when quiet smiling
was not enough and days when the long striding across the sodden fields
ended in a kiss
Days veiled in red and black
hot and when breath was hard to come by
on the basketball court
and when the tree was too high for climbing
Days of shouted arguments
and the force of blistering emotions
and the last days
when the dead
are scooped up and fed to the new dawn
The Dead Have Birthdays
