the west side of the gatehouse crumbled
and fell,

(did anyone hear it?)

now eight or nine planks of board hold it in place
and the stately entrance
is closed and cordoned off,
I'm the new kid on the block and
while we were picking artifacts such as names
and dates,
toppled headstones and sunken graves
spoke to me asked me
who they were,
did I think these
progenitors of
wealth, these boat people of
Europe
live a good life?

I can only conjecture. People are the same, wherever
they're buried.

Angels and engraved monoliths
carved deeply with names and ages on marble
or granite,
first and second, third wives, their babies,
sons and daughters,
husbands and wives,
mothers and fathers

death, disfigures us all,

the Greek revival mausoleums
with stained glass windows, the sun shining through,
the leaves' mottling shadows
stand guard as days wear deeper into the earth,

there is poetry here
in the silence

somewhere there is a grave of a Revolutionary War soldier amoung
all the dearly departed, but no one knows where he is interred... I sigh.
One would think his burial site would be important
enough to have been a historical landmark in Monroe Street Cemetery,
known if not remembered.

One would think wars would have ended and the soldiers that made American
famous would have died for something.

Ohio's buckeye trees are proud sentinels, and patches
of tiny yellow and white flowers bring me back.

the etch of time
erodes not a word
written in the heart...

http://media.cleveland.com/metro/photo/monroe-street-gatehouse-collapses...

http://www.keytomypast.com/5Cemeteries/_CemeteriesMainPage/angel.jpg