For a senior class project in 2002, our featured author was to go to a local graveyard and write a poem inspired by any gravestone found there.   I was really impressed with my young neighbor's insight and imagination, and so am sharing it with you here:

NOWOTNY

Beneath the fields of green and all that other stuff
We’ve come to rest cause we’ve just had enough.
We’re out of time, Our lives are gone,
but our second lives begin the first verse of a song.

My wife and I still talk like the way we use to do
I’ll do something dumb and she’ll say “You silly old fool!”
Each day is like another for all eternity
We sit and laugh the time away beneath the old oak tree.

Some may say “Death is peaceful” I say it can’t be.
Every night we raise a ruckus, some day you’ll see
At twelve o’clock the band plays it’s warm up tone,
And I play fetch with the dog using someone’s leg bone.

Death can at times be somber as well
Missing the loved ones you wish you could tell
That you loved them with all your heart and soul
And you hope the years of pain haven’t taken their toll.

When you die do not take with you guilt or regret.
Cause when you die you’ll have to fret
About what those who you loved will do with you
Will they burn you, bury you, or change your name to NOWOTNY!

--Steven Fierstien
copyright 2002
all rights reserved
unauthorized duplication prohibited by all applicable laws
 

You may write Steven here!
See his own web page HERE:-)