Concerning the Growing Population of the Dead

(being the report of a Committee appointed to investigate the problem)

That the dead walk among us
and are largely indistinguishable from us
is no longer a matter for dispute.
What remains less clear
is why they choose to do so.

We may discount
the unquiet spirit hypothesis:
the dead cannot be said to seem
taken statistically
more restless
more urgently in need of liberation
than their living counterparts.
Perhaps then we should lend some credence
to the explanation offered only half in jest
by Dr Stubbes, viz., why should they not?
It might as well be asked why we the living
choose to walk among the dead.

Granted that in recent decades
their numbers have been subject to increase,
the same may be said of ourselves.
And if it be asked, why are they silent?
should we not reply: why are we noisy?