I woke up early in the morning of 31 Octubre and knew that I had to make a Day of the Dead altar for the fallen in Iraq. I spent part of the day making a 17x44 inch poster of thumbnail photos of members of the US military forces who died during the past year. I added the words from my favorite bumper sticker and mounted it on a big piece of foam core. Then I went to Carniceria Guanajuato and bought velas and pan de muerto. I spread petals from our late-blooming dahlias on the ground, arranged the velas and lit them, added a pumpkin from my stepson's garden, a glass of water, and a plate with the pan de muerto. I propped up the poster along with another poster I'd made earlier this fall that had on it the names of all the confirmed US dead from the beginning of the Iraq war to 4 Septiembre 2007. That evening I sat on my front steps next to the altar, ate my supper, and handed out candy to the trick-or-treaters. Some of them thought it was cool. Cool.
