From "13th Balloon"

Not long ago the Pope decreed

that unbaptized babies would

no longer be banished to Limbo

and that their little souls languishing

there would be released

Imagine them getting the papal memo

and rising in unison   unsure

of  where to go

except up       twirling like colossal flocks

of  river martins

in dark enormous coils     their outlines

becoming eventually lighter

then translucent         then clear

We might guess incorrectly

that the accompanying sound

would be the usual celestial

harps and choirs

instead of  the intolerable shriek

that trapped breath makes

when it escapes from a balloon

whose opening is being pulled taut

or tens of thousands of these

Sebastião Salgado talks about traveling

through parts of  Brazil

where babies died so frequently

that churches rented out coffins for their funerals

and reused them dozens of times

A local vendor might sell bananas

and ice cream alongside shoes in which

babies could be buried

         Salgado also says that when

babies end up in Limbo

it has something to do with whether

or not their eyes are open or closed

when they are buried

              or is it when they die    I’m not sure

       The transcription

of the interview is unclear

When someone in a movie dies

with their eyes open

the lids are made to look

so easy to close

A priest for instance or a doctor

passes a reverent hand

over the corpse’s face

perhaps not even touching it

and the task is complete

The morning you died

our friend and your brother and I huddled

in your bed with your body

that overnight had decided

it was no longer you

but some awful machine

designed to lurch and wheeze

until it sucked in one

more breath and did not let it out

Your eyes were open and when

after a few minutes

no one came to close them

I tried to do it myself

but the lids kept popping back open

like busted window shades

that wouldn’t stay down

The word limbo derives from the Latin

word  limbus      a border         an edge

It also is a dance   that also is a contest

in which the winning dancer

is the one who doesn’t fall