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

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