Barefoot in the Graveyard
Here lieth the body of Elizabeth
who departed this life July 1, 1818 in
the 42nd year of her age and at her request
was inter’d in the same grave with her husband.
Shoeless, the grass and slugs cold beneath
our soles, we pause by the grave
of a woman who wished to lie again
and mingle with her lover.
Seeing this breadth
of white stone, the starlit sky, I see them, dust
and bone in their bed, while your blood calls
to mine, your whispers wind through my flesh.
Beneath your hands I open to you
like clouds below the moon.
