most New Orleanians visit the cemetery
on the Day of the Dead
I’m walking the levee with Megan Mina & Blaise
the Canal Street ferry is pulling away
from its dock
a barge is making a wide turn downriver
what thoughts do you allow yourself
when the moon is nearly full
my eyes are the kind of water
whose silence reaches for a word to say goodbye
I’m a monkey born like all the others
it’s like moving dirt from one hole to another
when I laugh I cry one by one
I sing because I’m outnumbered

Dave Brinks
from his book Caveat Onus: Meditations
Black Widow Press, 2009

used with permission of the poet