Tombstones Are Greedy
I didn’t know
that tombstones are greedy.
I came to talk to you,
and they all looked at me
and waved unseen hands
and said, “This one, too.”
I thought they fought with ants
over their contents, the bodies
of souls, mingled with dirt,
but found they fight for me
to look at them and wonder:
who lies in there so silent?
I thought I was alone
and yet there was a contest,
fighting for my gaze
to turn in their direction.
My eyes wandered,
thinking of my loved one,
whose message was so clear.
Who lies here was beautiful.
Who lies here was never sick.
Who lies here was strong,
princess of lonely spaces.
If you do not say “hello,”
you will miss a message
from beyond the now.
I said a loud “Hello!”
It echoed in the loneliness,
arrested my own thinking,
and walked all the way home with me.
Notes:
This poem was originally published at Poem Hunter and is part of the folio “Broken Lines: A Gathering of Exiled Poets,” curated by Laura Kraftowitz and Edward Salem. Read the rest of the folio in the July/August 2026 issue of Poetry.
Source: Poetry (July/August 2026)