STONE

How unfriendly new gravestones seem!
"Here I am, perfectly straight,

Magnificently heavy;
My neat-carved letters tell the world
This man is dead! Just let him try
To get by me! I am determined
To hold him down forever."

                                                  In time,
The ground shifts a bit and tree roots
Tilt the stone. It relaxes, becomes lenient
"Hey, corpse! Your name has blurred
And the date of your death is unreadable.
If you want to get up and visit a while
With the other dead folk, go ahead"

ANSWERS

Answers to questions I should have asked
Haphazardly scattered, still abroad in the world:
A bit of daylight, lost in a mirror since August 9, 1938;
A pocket watch; some notes from The William Tell Overture;
An unclaimed silver medal; a hand setting a pebble
On top of a gravestone; a story which traveled
Forty years to find its only true audience
Silently waiting for it, alone in the crowded house

Drinking black tea from a chipped blue cup.