after Museo de las Momias, Guanajuato, México, 1957 by Elliott Erwitt

the two of them bicker
heedless of the querulous dead
surrounding them
silently bellowing life’s too short

we’re deep in conversation
flanked by the clamorous dead
life’s too short to ever stop
conversing with you

he stabs a finger at her
he is pressing his point
her body arches away from him
she wearily plots her eventual escape

sometimes we talk about the dead
I’m not afraid to join them someday
when I can talk to you right now

they are locked in a struggle
that might bear them
inch by inch toward death

we are so alive amid the monoliths
tell me everything
I want to tell you everything