An Ambiguous Care of the Dead

One folk explanation for early
Deaths of the young and the lovely
Was that fairies had seized the person

Who was so young and desirable
And left behind the good-looking corpse
As a true changeling, changed to dead flesh.

The fairies are greedy and tricky
Like that. Sometimes words think of ourselves
As like the fairies but in reverse—

We raid the most beautiful, ancient
Relics a memory can manage
To resurrect with substitute clay

Scripts, signs, texts. We take ambiguous
Care of the lost and the past. We can
Sit sealed as tombstones and still contain

These bits of ghosts. But you see, our wraiths
Aren’t actually the living dead.
We steal the memories from readers

By suggesting other forms of them—
Far-off lives, historical figures,
Fictional protagonists—all live

In us, when what we’ve done is changed some
Memories you had of your own lives
For mere suggestions, the way dreams lie.