Dead Folks

Catfish and Catfish, Jr. circa 1990.

I’m tender-hearted today from spending last night with my Dead folks.

As we do every year for Halloween and Day of the Dead, Eric and I tended to our ancestor altar, remembered out loud the names, lineage, and tales of our beloved dead, and drank a beer with them.

I remember Paul Canon, Catfish, Daddy.  Wild spirit, poet soul, nature boy, party animal!

I remember Richard Stanley Canon, Grandfather. Singer, Bostonian, goofball, charismatic, loving.

I remember Richard Thomas Greene, Grandfather.  Singer, Irish & Iroquois, New-Yorker, red-cheeked, laughing, flowing, loving.

I remember Ruby Edwards, Great-Grandmother, Nanny.

I remember those who I knew only as a small child, and saw standing in my room glowing, after they passed, loving them without fear.

I remember Enkil, Rosanna, Bandit, Spider, Kitty, Gomez…furry four-legged loved ones whose lives trot out so much more quickly than our average span.

I remember many and more.  I honor and respect those who have come to make me be here now.  I honor and respect those who came to make Eric who he is now.  I honor and respect them as people, for their good and their bad, their humanity.