What if the Dead Returned?
By Leonard Nolt
What if the dead returned,
Waking us at dawn with a knock on the door,
Or at dusk, as the sun falls…like a rock
Off the edge of the horizon?
What if the dead returned,
Telling everyone all they know about us
Everything we did or didn’t do,
All they heard since leaving?
What if the dead returned, today
Or tomorrow, next year or yesterday,
And are now sitting with us,
Disguised as angels, but always
As brothers and sisters?
What if the dead returned,
Long after we quit missing them, even
Though we vowed to never forget?
What if the dead returned,
Looking for loose change on street
Corners, tugging a black trash bag,
Next to an empty grocery cart,
Offering us a second chance?
What if the dead returned,
As our children..
Asking for our love again?
What if the dead returned,
Faces aglow, a knowing smile,
And eyes filled with hope…
Like Lazarus, with no word of
Where they’d been, asking us
To follow them?
Leonard Nolt is using retirement to arrange and rearrange words.
Photography by Kenneth Godoy