Issue 22 - 1992

Coe Review • Issue 22
Choices
Barb Martens
There are no headstones here
no marble or granite engravings
no lilies, dates, names carved
to tell us who they’ve been.
But simple, flat bronze markers
you cannot see unless you dare
to walk on those who lie
entombed beneath your feet.
Lawn crypts they are called
where lovers do not lie
side by side, but rest, spent,
one on top, the other underneath--
an embrace more intimate
than thousands felt before.
But who do those who lived alone
lie with in the crypts?
Do they rise for weight of union
with a body thrust down,
or stonily reject their
new found companion
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