Teachers to the Dead

While we slept,
you strapped your arm around
my chest like armor and possession,
like ‘this one belongs to me.’ Together, we are
teaching the things that haunt us
to lie down in their graves.

Here, like this
your demons say to mine as
they demonstrate the art of behaving.
Together, we secure their
broken bodies and set them into six feet of
downward motion.
        (but we do not follow
           we cannot go in their stead)

They do not know they’re dead. It’s
always a blow when we break the news.
They find themselves jealous of our
human skin and our inhaling
                                 exhaling chests.
(we are too kind
to show that we are more alive without them
   that losing them is not a loss)

But they sleep after many lessons and
much persuasion, and then
      so do we.