The black marble stones,

engraved without a thought

of personality,

 just information,

barest glimpse, beloved,

much missed by,

called to Heaven,

and a stamped arrival

and departure date,

best possibly during, not after,

are forever on show and never revealed

as the cemetery lays

dormant and rusting,

standing still locked in time

but slowly crumbling…

save me from the forever eternal

I feel welling in my empty heart

as I lower my head at the foot

of one such grave…

taken too soon,

with love from a misspelled name.

Ian D. Hall 2021.