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