Sunday, 01 February 2009

• Give Me A Stick for a Gravestone*

  Jen _xxx_
  
  Doesn’t have a 10-line epitaph
  Doesn’t want to be remembered in 10 lines
  Or even two
  She’d prefer to rest in peace
  And let the passers-by
  Go in peace
  Without having to stop and read some 10-line epitaph
  Written in some 10 minute stint
  For a class assignment that wasn’t even hers
  
  So don’t make her write an epitaph
  Don’t make her talk about what she didn’t do
  (Change the world)
  Don’t make her talk about her accomplishments
  (Writing what is turning out to be much more than
  A 10-line epitaph)
  
  Go about your business
  Build houses and gardens and
  Other people’s gravestones… let the world spin
  Out on its eternal axis and let her rest
  
  Let her wait for Heaven in her own peaceful sleep
  Let her free from the dew of this world and
  The stinging insults of this nettled air
  Let her free from sonnets, from praise
  
  From grief and from fear
  From 10-line epitaphs
  From hours of prayer for those she loved
  
  Only give her a stone
  (A rest for her head)
  And visions of angels singing a great hymn of praise
  Give her a cake baked over hot glowing coals
  Give her a stick with a small post-it note
  That reads, if you must, a
  Short explanation: She waits.
  
  *Some students were asked by their English teacher to write their own epitaph. This is what I came up with for myself as they asked for my help. (I did help them too.) It's supposed to be at least 10 lines long.
  
  I was always a rebel when given assignments like these... if you were to write your own epitaph that was at least 10 lines long, what would you write?
  
  

  • 10:13 PM
  • 70 Views
  • 4 eProps
  • 4 Comments