The Country Cemetery

There will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust. Acts 24: 15

The Country Cemetery

 

By Elton Camp

 

This burial yard is the oldest around

Graves of the early 1800s are found

And it remains in use up to this day

When death’s call folks must obey

 

Oldest markers are fieldstone rude

With hard-carved writing so crude

Words the survivors often misspell

As names and sentiments they tell

 

A tiny, plain square, but little gave

Not even a name, only “negro slave”

How it got there, none can now know

But no other blacks are there, though

 

Where the dead rich came to lie

Are shown by markers so high

No expense did relatives spare

So all will know they are there

 

Some must surely contain the living

“There is no death” marker is giving

“In heaven” most tombstones do tell

But not a one reads that “He’s in hell”

 

Possibly everyone there was a saint?

But I am very sure the truth that ain’t

Buried there are both the good and bad

Plenty of both types they must have had

 

The saddest marker that is found here

Shows a little child laid out on her bier

She has been dead for a hundred years

But we can still sense her family’s tears

 

Here some of my own ancestors lie

Before I was born most came to die

It’s sad that about them little is known

It is only names and dates on a stone

 

But to come back to life they must

“A resurrection of the just and unjust”

But when will come that glorious day

Not a person here on this earth can say

 

Until that time, they will all rest in peace

All strife and worry at their death did cease

Jesus Christ is the one who paid the price

So that most people may come to live twice

 

It is true that heaven awaits only the elite

Most who lived back on the earth will meet

But in conditions they will find very nice

An earth that’s transformed to a paradise