If I could be anybody for just one day,

I’d want to be one of the mummies hanging from the wall  in the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo.

Photographer Unknown

The mummies that live there- and I know that is probably is s funny word to use, have been in those halls for a very long time.

In their best and dusty clothes, the  Mummies  standing in the halls and hanging from the walls have watched people stroll by, walk by, creep by, they’ve heard them whisper things about death and decay  and the human body to themselves that they may not otherwise say out loud to another living soul .

It’s a private moment.

From the sockets where their eyes used to be housed the mummies can still see the  faces of the  living- unguarded , naked and interestingly enough- shifty eyed.

In that quiet and intimate moment when the living look in to the faces of the mummies,  and  the living do not think anyone is watching them,  the dead can read the living like a book- a brand knew book  whose spine creaks and crack when it is opened for the first time.

Photographer Unknown

If I could be anyone for just one day it’s true, I’d want to be a Mummy hanging from the wall, or standing in a hall wearing the remains of my finest clothes because I sincerely believe it would be a scream:

Photographer: Peter