why dance this dance of death
skeleton jangling hollow bones together
brittle bones like flutes that wail
lonely in the wind
why dance
when the grave is cool and deep around you
when the grave night sleep is calling you on
to lie to rest to slumber leaden
why nimbly dance instead
shimmy through the interstices
wriggle wormlike up through peeks and cracks
rattle on your moss grown mound and flail
against the night

why not die the cricket's death
chirrup ceasing
stoneblack body growing dry against the hill
lifedust trembling in the slightest breeze
hollowed out by age
why not die this death this death
why not just die

i will not die the insect's death
never dancing to be free
i will shimmy through the maze of airholes
left inside my grave
i will issue from my tomb and sing the hollow song
i will rattle with the wind until my bones catch
flesh
and flesh grows on me
until bone and ligament are clothed in silk again
until hair sprouts dark and billowing and my eyes
spark dark and gay
and life flows whole and beckoning from my limbs

i will not lie this death of death
but dance out from my grave
because i live
because i live
because i live

CASEY JUNE WOLF