Max Richards

Day of the Dead, Seattle

Latino culture here? - at this place of Jesuits -

oh yes, Halloween’s their Day of the Dead.

So, sheltering from rain in Saint Ignatius’

new chapel (curvaceous, asymmetrical, hush-

inducing) for the campus my wife studies at,

till she meets me after class, I gape just

a moment at the makeshift layout:

a small table, glittering skulls, bright 

vegetables; roses real, marigolds not; 

candles, burned down, hollowed out; 

an exercise book people have written in, 

names of their lost ones; paper to write on,

words for their lost ones, add to a basket.

My wife comes, feels the spirit as I can’t,

writes words for her cousin recently lost,

folds them over for the full basket.

© Max Richards

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