COFFEE WITH THE DEAD

I.

                                          

On this

New Mexico

monastery morning

it suits me

to stop and sit

on a stone retaining wall

to have coffee with the dead.

Twenty-six

rough wooden crosses

monks & benefactors

gone to dust

planted

in

rows

&

tiers

fenced

in a

high desert clearing

of

sage

and

chamisa

mowed

low.


II.

Sky

razored blue

clouds

sliding

on & off

the sun

hawks

ravens

&

magpies

catching

thermals

above
neon

cottonwoods

cold breezes.

III.

Twenty-six

crosses

knee-high

dark

&

hewn.

Twenty-three

carved

with

names

&

dates.

Two

left bare

waiting.

One cross apart

inscribed

“For all those

buried

in this canyon”

a

dedication

that spans time

to

reveal us

as souls

in eternity.

IV.

This

monastery

will

fade

&

fall

as will

these

crosses

as will

this

chronicle

as will

the

memory

of

“…all those buried

in this canyon”

as will

this

canyon

Requiescat in Pace, Amen.

RW

Santa Fe/Seattle

10.17 – 10.23.2018