Jan Dean # 25 Dresses for the Dead

 

DRESSES FOR THE DEAD

front page headlines read

pushing me back to meeting

the young Australian woman

red-haired and animated

opposite the railway station

in Kyoto. We’d just arrived

and she’d been to markets

held weekly, therefore out

of our reach. She was there

to study the lost wax

technique, making bronzes

and reaching into her bag

pulled out exquisite kimonos

bought for next to nothing

telling us Japanese believe

souls of the dead inhabit

their abandoned clothes.