Little sugar skulls sit in waiting
they are patient penitents –
attendants to the Great Day.
Check their foreheads for your name
but the icing swirls spell someone else’s fate.
You have escaped once more until tomorrow
when you pass the bakery storefront again.
Just a little poem I came up with to celebrate Dia de los Muertos. Many people, including my family, will be going out to the cemeteries to honor their loved ones. I know my grandmother has been busy the past few weeks making special wreaths.
Growing up I remember helping my grandmother make the wreaths. We would sit for hours, wrapping wire in green crepe paper to make the stems for the flowers. My grandmother would then make the most elaborate floral creations out of colorful crepe paper. As a finishing touch she would dip the paper flowers in wax to make them shiny.
She’s in Mexico so I won’t be helping her with the wreaths but I do know that I will light a candle for someone very special and who’s always in my heart.
