.................................
Mountain Graveyard
.................................

The slope is too steep for horse or mule,
the steps too narrow for planting.
So it becomes the graveyard...

The yard is tended with care for generations...
grass mowed,
weeds pulled,
headstones repaired,
decorated on birthdays,
anniversaries,
dates of death.
On Memorial Day the whole hillside
is a riot of flowers,
cards,
toys,
fond memories.
One family erects a wrought iron fence
around their baby's grave -
their way to preserve her resting place
for ever and for all...

When the yard is full --
the families buried or
moved or
too old to walk the acclivity --
when a new place of rest
is found and tended,
the old one is forgotten...

Headstones worn by rain and wind,
toppled by roots of growing trees.
Graves sink in as coffins and contents rot,
leave cavities in the earth.
A ten foot tall tree grows in the middle
of the baby's wrought iron fence.
Weeds and
briars and
trees and
wild flowers
take over ...
a jungle
with an occasional marker of the past,
because human life
is very good
fertilizer.

.................................
Trina Stolec
.................................

 
Copyright © Trina Stolec
May 1998

...two poems in this room by Arlene Ang...
Story of Ms. Hair
Return to Agnieszka's Dowry Welcoming Room