Gravestone

JENNIFER CANTRELL | VERMONT

For William Stringham (1860–1897), buried in Galvin Cemetery in Ripton, Vermont

First line from Lucille Clifton’s “won’t you celebrate with me”

Won’t you celebrate with me my sharp angles of granite, eroded words caressed by the wind? I was put here because stone is firmer than flesh and has a longer memory.

Celebrate, too, the tree bursting forth from my left side, though it skews me to an unnerving angle. That tree cradles a skull in its roots, and what more could one want for one’s bones than the embrace of a tree and the testament of stone?