Poet’s Showcase

In the Lawrence Cemetery, a Century after Quantrill’s Raid

By Muriel K. Stackley

Once I used your headstone for my feet

and leaning in amusement or conceit

against your neighbor’s marker, called to mind

a paradox that oddly served to bind

us. Earth that, silent, cradled your decay

was that which rested me against a day

of living. Plaques that told of violence to you

a hundred years before now witnessed to

the incongruency of my complete

abandonment in resting of my feet.

August 1863

– Muriel K. Stackley lives in Kansas City, Kan. This poem is in “Oracle of the Heart,” revised and expanded edition (Wordsworth,) which received – with Larry Rochelle – the Nelson Poetry Award, Best Book 2004, from Kansas Authors Club.