#8 - though we are dead we still know how to dance

The Ahkiyyini is a skeleton spirit in Inuit folklore

I beat my shoulder blades with limbs of ice

and sinew like some twisted tambourine,

a drum whose syncopation lies between

those tangled realms of hell and paradise.

For when I dance the spirits roll the dice ‒

the waters crack, the mountains shake and scream,

the waking world becomes a fading dream ‒

and those who hear the drummer pay the price.

So dance, you drowning pilgrims, dance with me

a pirouette, the pulse of life and death,

the rhythm of the vagaries of chance

that drag you down beneath a sunless sea.

Remember, as you draw your final breath ‒

though we are dead we still know how to dance.

RJT