The Poem[1]

Emptiness,

gnawing, my very bones

a gaping chasm

once filled with little arms

and big smiles.

A need so raw

it demands expression,

proclamations

loud enough to wake the dead,

but they do not hear,

as they slumber beneath

small white stones.

And so we erect a monument

in tribute to those

who went before.

Before what?

Before their time

before they should,

before I was ready.

Nights sitting beside hot little bodies

Mopping fevered dreams

from pleading eyes

and rasping throats.

Listening for every shallow breath

as the future dims and

fades from view, for when we are gone

there will be no one

to mourn them

to remember

that the names crossed from

the records

were once living, breathing

bodies who were cherished,

not only for themselves

but for the future they assured

and that is why we build,

each brick rooting them

to this place they once called home.

While this stands

they will not leave,

it tethers them to the land,

anchoring them

even as their names fade.

^[1] The original design plans for ‘The Poem’ have the words ‘A Poem On Life And Death’ inscribed above the door.