Author: Lee Nash

Stock photo of a woman in Dia de los Muertos face makeup wearing a headdress make of fake flowers and monarch butterflies. Image credit: Israyosoy S. (Important note, this image does not depict Lee Nash.)

Lee Nash (she/her) writes poetry, short fiction, and creative non-fiction. Her work has been featured in diverse journals and anthologies, including Ambit, America Magazine, Magma, Slice, and The Best Small Fictions 2019. Her poetry chapbook, Ash Keys, was published by Flutter Press (2017) and Un Rhinocéros en Opération Sauvetage, her translation of Cleve Hicks’ A Rhino to the Rescue, was published by Éditions Maïa (2021). She has won or been placed/shortlisted in international competitions including Bath Flash Fiction Award, the Bridport Prize, the Princemere Poetry Prize, Fish Publishing’s The Lockdown Prize, and the TU Dublin Short Story Competition.

 

Stock image. Credit: Israyosoy S.

Guarda Silencio

They arrive in the autumn

for the Day of the Dead

 

three days of celebrations

the Purépecha tossing oranges

into the coffin of the grinning corpse

They arrive in the autumn

for the Day of the Dead

 

three days of celebrations

the Purépecha tossing oranges

into the coffin of the grinning corpse

the burning of candles overnight

ofrendas hung with flowers

 

this year two more souls

Homero and Raul

will join the festivity

 

you will not pinpoint them

among the gauzy wings

that bend the oyamels’ boughs

the millions of ounces

that flew thousands of miles

to overwinter here

 

we use the same word for stained glass

and blood on a weapon

 

marmalade on their concave tongues

they descend in a long apricot cloud

and rouse the scent of fir

 

kings from another realm

this is their throneroom

 

when they settle, be silent

because in earthly life

they were not

 

 

In memory of Homero Gomez Gonzalez, manager of Mexico’s El Rosario monarch butterfly sanctuary, and Raul Hernandez Romero, a tour guide at the reserve. Both conservationists were found slain early in 2020.