All Souls Day 2026

It is the morning breeze stirring through

the datura, I know that,

but what if it were Grandma Rose

and Kevin and Chayim, Jane and Laurie,

Ben and Donald and Jerry

tapping the big yellow bells

on this day of the thin veil,

each blossom a bright and silent gong

calling me to memory,

alerting me to presence?

My weeping would contain

as much welcome as grief.

I miss you.

Thank you for coming.

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Mary Camille Thomas

Mary Camille Thomas is a native of Santa Cruz who is grateful to make her home on the California coast once more after living internationally and on the road. She studied comparative literature at UC Davis and received a master’s degree in library science from UCLA, which gave her a way to earn a living while making a life among books. Her poetry and essays have appeared in the Monk in the World Guest Post Series, Moving Force Journal, Presence, Porter Gulch Review, Second Wind, Sisters Singing, and The New Story, and she has completed a novel called What Lies Buried about a man reckoning with his family’s Nazi past.

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