Out on the stubborn plains
Next to a county road
A white board fence
Encloses rough-mown grass
And in among the monuments
A singular granite slab
Hard as the Oklahoma mountains
But carved across the top
With sprays of leaves and flowers.
Beneath, “Mother,” “Father,”
“Anna,” “Walkup,”
Two rows of dates,
The words “They sleepeth”
and a German family name.
The foliage patiently imposed
On the obdurate surface,
The names, the sentiment,
The red, unyielding rock,
Will remain for centuries,
Millennia,
As will the dream.
