EL DIA DE LOS MUERTOS
(THE DAY OF THE DEAD)
The skull is an old preoccupation.
Hamlet spoke to Yorick, and
Pre-Columbian burials yield
These tiny tokens, mementi mori,
And aboriginal poets lamented,
With Ecclesiastes, the briefness of flowers:
They knew that man is born to die.
All their funerary postures –
Bodies flat or flexed, singular or
Communal, came to the same conclusion.
Children today make sugar skulls
For dolls they dress in pastel papers,
White hands protruding from sleeves.
They set out candy for the dead,
Sweet imitations of bread and fruit,
Refreshments for the long journey,
And visit skeletons in the crypts,
Dusty bonnets on infant skulls,
Holding reunions with family bones.
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