YOU MAY NOT WANT TO READ THIS, BUT

i
whoever said, nothing is carved in stone,
never visited the graveyard full of flowering

rock newly carved, and old granite—petals
faded and leaning—ready to fall to the ground.

ii
After thirty days we check that the clouds
of mourning read out loud have not stained

the setting stone, that the dead remain dead,
held down by geological history and time, rocks

iii
torn from the ground weighing them, keeping
them from rising up again to claim the messiah

and all the ancestors and descendants.
They scream their names out loud for those

iv
who forgot and whisper soft condolences to
those who remember when blood pumped,

breath laughed, and eyes sparked—
shades of joy for each of us, in our turn.

Steps III – A piece of music
 

Picture by Steve Karn

Poem by Michael Dickel

Music by Dorothee Eberhardt