Published on: 2/18/2013
Plato Center Cemetery

Just up the road, a graveyard
where plots once $200, now doubled
but still cheap to residents of
Plato Center, a place that no longer legally
exists since the postmaster died
and our zip code disappeared.

I should have purchased that plot twenty years
ago when it was really a bargain
but at the time, I had no intention
of ever dying.

In the graveyard,
there's seven stones captioned Hall
all of them children, all the same year
1880 something. What happened here—
Diphtheria? I think there was a local outbreak
or was that the year the big tornado hit.
I know the house didn't burn because
I live in it.

Lately, I'm worried as more folks move in
there won't be room for me. The desirable
section under the twisted pines seems full.
I'd settle for a spot up on the hill
in full sun picketed by wildflowers.