Some October

Wandering the ancient graveyard

I was a soul seeking flesh
albeit moldering.
Names faint as spirits
pled for mortal tongue 
to voice the forgotten syllables
without which they perish.

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF ALISON 
WIFE TO SEBASTIAN KOCH
AGED 27 YEARS 3 MONTHS 2 WEEKS 4 DAYS
DIED SEPTEMBER 6 1864
'
I feel Alison's grateful smile.
Limestone markers tilt at odd angles
many hopelessly illegible.
Others are broken off
leaving the impression of broken teeth.
No cheer in this half acre
only the suggestion of unremembered lives
tangled among the roots of
wildwood and sour apple trees.
I whisper names into the bracing autumn wind
hoping to offer temporary balm
to ethereal want.
Some October, years hence
perhaps a kind pilgrim will step
within my half acre home
and gift to my bones
the gentle voicing of my name
and within the soil of  my sleep
I will smile, too.