Hot Springs County Cemetery

Those happy days tending the dead.

Mountains embraced me. The gate

closed. No one wanting in or out.

Perfecting the width and depth

of death, I circled granite testaments,
recreated their lives from clues:

middle names, dates, places of birth,
last words etched with acids for all

eternity. I called them by first names.

At home in bed, into the morning, 

I told my wife their stories. The lie 

as good as the truth in this world.