I

All these feelings viewed from a distance
Like reports from a foreign correspondent
Welcome news of victory and calamity alike

As a stone angel receives the weather
Sunshine, now pelted with hail
Everything in passing

II

The departed do not gather
In cemeteries, they stand mute
At the window, peering in

Tapping like a tree branch tip
In the wind, outside the wake of a friend
Everyone dancing in there, in spite of it all

III

We crossed paths on the way
To the same spot, where a stone marker
Announces all our days to your memory

My stony face coughs up a smile
Standing at this luggage claim carousel
We travelers with our checked memories

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Photos (CC-BY-SA) 2021, G. Paul Randall.
Glenwood Cemetery, Houston, Texas.