Death Personified as a Skeleton in Prayer

In this Book of Hours,
these minutes, these seconds,
what we lived just now
is over
like a leaf fluttering into the air,
then hitting the ground—
a blazing red leaf in prayer for its death to be brief.
High winds in October,
the knell singing in the ancient skies,
the supple grief upon the skin,
the smile of life gnawing at a skeleton’s hand
when one sees the trees of autumn
in their glory.

 

Luis Lázaro Tijerina is a military historian and military theorist. He is a published author. Mr. Tijerina admit that he writes poetry and paints easel works as an outlet for the more intense work that he does from a professional position.