Oh man. I was looking for a light poem, and so I opened a poem by this same author, Crisosto Apache, called “Laughter.” IT WAS NOT LIGHT. So ironically I went to this poem, and I felt much better than with the “Laughter” poem!

Death

By Crisisto Apache

 

For E.P. Kazhe/Botella

The dread, however, was not of death’s agonies.
— Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, tr. by Will Petersen

 

it is prohibited to whisper the names of the dead,
as it encourages them to linger at the doorstep,
and she has already lingered, far too long