I saw the friar’s lanterns
Go out among the tombs
To fetch the new arrivals
From out their lightless rooms.
They flickered on the flowers,
They bobbed among the stones
And slowly grew in number
As souls departed bones.
They floated to the chapel
And vanished through the door
To wake the ones who slumbered
Beneath the chapel floor.
I saw one in the belfry,
Another on the wall.
The rest shot up the steeple,
And then I saw them all
United in the Heavens,
Ecstatic in their flight,
Released from obligation,
And wedded to the night.
I watched them til the morning,
I saw them disappear,
And ever since that meeting,
I’ve lived immune from fear.
Nina Dinan recently received a B.A. in History and Russian Studies from UCLA. Her poetry is inspired by her love of folklore, balladry, and ghost stories. She has won multiple Gold Keys in poetry from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, and her work has appeared in Academy of the Heart and Mind.
