The Lemuria Door
A Ritual for the Restless Dead
Today marks the Festival of Lemuria, the ancient Roman Festival for restless spirits of the dead.
In ancient Rome, the month of May bore the burdened whispers of the dead.
During the festival of Lemuria, families performed quiet rituals to drive away restless spirits believed to return to the homes they once knew. Black beans were tossed over the shoulder. Mirrors were covered. Doors were sealed before midnight.
Some believed the rites offered the living protection
Others believed they merely delayed the knocking.
Some doors are closed to refuse entry to the dead. Others are closed to keep guilt in.
🌒 🕯️ 🌒 🕯️ 🌒 🕯️ 🌒 🕯️
Silence wraps as night unfolds,
Squeaks on wooden beams.
Soft. Salt. Stays.
In porcelain bowls
From Aunt Claudia.
Its door stays closed.
🌒 🕯️ 🌒 🕯️ 🌒 🕯️ 🌒 🕯️
Black beans tossed past the shoulder.
Mirrors shrouded in white muslin.
Soft. Salt. Stays.
Soft. Salt Stays.
Windows secured, safely bolted--
Before midnight.
🌒 🕯️ 🌒 🕯️ 🌒 🕯️ 🌒 🕯️
The squeaks sharpen soundly.
Wet footprints, across the floor.
Its form in the mirrors.
Face. Fear. Flash.
Face. Fear. Flash.
Aunt Claudia's black beans.
Stop.
🌒 🕯️ 🌒 🕯️ 🌒 🕯️ 🌒 🕯️
The Face.
Uncle Julius'.
From returning, year after year.
From reminding her
That she forgot
His cries.
🌒 🕯️ 🌒 🕯️ 🌒 🕯️ 🌒 🕯️
Softer squeaks on wooden beams.
Soft. Salt. Stays.
Soft. Salt. Stays.
From Aunt Claudia.
The door, now open.
🌒 🕯️ 🌒 🕯️ 🌒 🕯️ 🌒 🕯️
Original poem by Michelle Liew Tsui-Lin. AI tags are coincidental.
For Mikeydred's May Challenge
Mirrors of the Mind by Michelle Liew is a collection of psychological and supernatural short stories that explore the quiet unease beneath ordinary moments. These are not tales of spectacle, but of subtle fracture — where memory distorts, silence speaks, and the self is not always singular. In these stories, what is unseen often carries the greatest weight, and what lingers is not what is shown, but what is felt.
About the Creator
Michelle Liew Tsui-Lin
Hi, i am an English Language teacher cum freelance writer with a taste for pets, prose and poetry. When I'm not writing my heart out, I'm playing with my three dogs, Zorra, Cloudy and Snowball.
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