Perpetual Care

they lived their whole lives in Houston   in death
              they lay a block from
              an auto parts store within

Harley spat of I-45   theirs was a Houston
              of damp collars   shiny cheeks
              rounded fenders   separate fountains

for the colored   and it had deposited them
              the map assured us
              along a chain link fence so old

the barks of oak trees had overgrown the
              zigzag steel and healed
              around it   we searched

along the sagging fence stone by stone kneeling
              to pull back fibrous nets of
              augustine grass that flooded

over the sides of the sinking markers warm to
              the touch   but they were
              nowhere to be found

my wife   frustrated   hot   twice-bereaved   jabbed
              a stick in the dirt and it
              snapped   we started digging

and found a new grave marker buried   illegible
              forgotten   then we found
              several   all slowly subsiding in

a sea of glittering turf and oak shade   they could
              be anywhere   the sign says
              Perpetual Care and it's right

the old ones drag their stones down with them
              cool dirt   erasure of history
              respite of a long obliteration

Naugatuck River Review, Issue 5, 2011: 102.