THE DEAD DO NOT WANT US DEAD

The dead do not want us dead;

such petty errors are left for the living.

Nor do they want our mourning.

No gift to them—not rage, not weeping.

Return one of them, any one of them, to the earth,

and look: such foolish skipping,

such telling of bad jokes, such feasting!

Even a cucumber, even a single anise seed: feasting.

September 15, 2001