Contributor Series 7: The Confessional Diary of Bone
Grave Duty
By Kim Klugh
These stones, smooth as old bones
these tombstones
these sun-bleached fleshless tablets
bear names and date tags
chiseled for the dead below
lined up row by row remind me
of decaying teeth
some worn down or chipped,
some now leaning
a few needing
to be pulled out or realigned
Eternal markers engraved
with the grave duty to identify
and guard those bones newly laid to rest
along with those whose hands and feet
now so long ago were stilled
and in stony silence lie
beneath these weathered granite name plates
all these boney hands that from trains
and carriages waved,
all these pairs of feet that trod, trod
beside the family dog
in all kinds of weather now
remain at rest these many years
through snow and rain and summer storms
Meanwhile, the living guests
who weave among these silent sentinels,
after all their public mourning cries and moans
now intone soft prayers begging peace
from their boxed up sorrows hidden deep
among these vaults
the living walk with all their faults
some confessing, some repressing
as they seek atonement from beyond the grave–
yearning to bury more here than just their dead.
Sin of Omission was the most recent poem by Kim Klugh to appear at vox poetica. It was published as part of Contributor Series 6: A Currency of Words.
Amazing, I couldn’t read it fast enough.