The Second Husband

After what feels like two thousand years
      I find you under the permafrost.
I dig and dig until your twelve frozen horses
      spring up in their red felt masks and ibex horns.
You must have ridden each one to heaven
     
in your high headdress with its gold foil frieze
      of Celestial Mountains, your crest
of winged snow leopards and antlered wolves
      with eagle tines. When you ask me to stay
 I know this is the afterlife.