CE Chaffin

 

The Dead

Are we gentler with the dead
than with the living?

We lower them like glassware
into the earth
and speak well of them,
careful of their feelings.

We adorn their tombs
with photos and tulips.

Their rest is so sacred
we need a court order to disturb it.

It is easy to love the dead.
They make no demands.
They are not in competition.
They can't be more dead.

 

Previously published in Moonshade