“Mullo*” | Trinity Fritz Lawrence | Poetry

Mullo *

Trinity V. Fritz Lawrence

Mullo (Muli: female, Mulo: male) is a revenant or vampire from Roma folklore. ‘Mullo’ translates to “one who is dead.”

A mullo is formed when someone dies an unnatural death or does not receive proper funeral rites. A mullo is often seen in white clothes, hair that reaches to their feet, and one physical oddity (a trait which varies from region to region). In many regions, they are identified as walking sideways. A mullo’s objective is to seek out people it did not like in life and harass them.

They say the dead walk sideways that night I heard them laughing. The news said Notre Dame was burning then they all smiled behind the curtain.

A holy ghost inside this corn maze leads us all to death and pasture and still the dead walk sideways— tonight, you’ll hear them laughing.

If rosemary’s for remembrance then I can burn my poetry. But will the dead walk sideways? At night, I’ll hear them laughing.

Deacon, let the organs sing of doubt, and desperation. “Alas, the dead walk sideways.” “Oh God, I hear them laughing.”

Memento mori in remission finds us all in mint condition. That said, the dead walk sideways; at night I hear them laughing.

If when you sleep, you hear some rasping, unknown cadence. Just know the dead walk sideways at night you’ll hear them laughing.

The fool’s journey finds us all upon a path to nowhere. We are dead, walking. At night we die, laughing.

If when you die you fear the world will soon forget you come back, walk sideways. In the end, it will make no difference.

They always said I’d fear the pull of death and dying.

But in the end, I fear the living.