Completing the Pattern

Completing the Pattern
by Michael R. Burch

 
Walk with me now, among the transfixed dead
who kept life’s compact and who thus endure
harsh sentence here -- among white-petaled beds
and manicured green lawns. The sky’s azure,
pale blue once like their eyes, will gleam blood-red
at last when sunset staggers to the door
of each mute mausoleum, to inquire --
What use, O things of erstwhile loveliness?

Reviews

[John the Baptist]

An existential question asked in a cemetery in this one. No matter what we do, what we become on this physical plane, one event happens to all. What use? It's a question for each individual to answer.

[Michael R. Burch]

I would compare the question to an unsolvable riddle, like Bilbo Baggins asking poor Gollum, "What have I got in my pocket?" :)