Offrenda.

Make a skull of marzipan,
Bake a bone of bread,
Take a picnic to the graveyard
On the Day of the Dead.

Bring a chocolate coffin,
Bring an almond cake,
Lay them on the tombstone
For when the dead awake.

The friendly dead are smiling
And remembering the sun
The taste of milk, the fire of chilli
How it felt to sing, to run.

And when the night has fallen
On the gravestones candles burn
We think of how we came from earth
And to the earth return.



FROM FEASTS & FESTIVALS   
(Wayland 1999)