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.
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