Day 835: All Hallows

Today is All Hallows, All Souls Day or Day of the Dead as it is known in Mexico, where the people
paint their faces as elaborate skulls as a colourful way of remembering the dead.



All Hallows - Louise Gluck 

Even now this landscape is assembling.

The hills darken. The oxen

sleep in their blue yoke,

the fields having been

picked clean, the sheaves

bound evenly and piled at the roadside

among cinquefoil, as the toothed moon rises:

This is the barrenness

of harvest or pestilence.

And the wife leaning out the window

with her hand extended, as in payment,

and the seeds

distinct, gold, calling

Come here

Come here, little one

And the soul creeps out of the tree.