Who knows what kindness is anymore,
what is compassion? The streets fill
with those who have forgotten who
they are. They’ll burn torches
at midnight and high noon, plant them
on lawns; tear down doors, break dinnerware
on the counters, shred clothes in the drawers
and on the line. In the pitcher, there is still
water cool as the wells from where
it was drawn. On the board, enough bread
without need for asking. The owl shreds a small,
quivering thing in its talons; the vulture skulks
among the rocks— we call this blind nature,
but this is not the same. The water is cobalt
with sadness, but nowhere like the terrible sadness
boiling in the streets with incoherent fire.
In response to Via Negativa: Day of the dead.