Capturing Campus: Christmas for the Dead

Christmas for the Dead

In the graveyard

with holly and mistletoe

on old oak trees

bare limbs and tinsel

a celebration past sundown

paper snowflakes on headstones

and candy cane bouquets

that can’t be eaten by those with  

missing fingerbones and teeth in odd places

and no nose to redden 

from the biting chill of eve

but they gather and lounge

on hills that are their final home 

to proclaim the festivities are for all

and to all a goodnight