Boneyard Tour

[the mingo]

the church
the graveyard
me wandering from stone to stone
reading whatever is left
my bicycle waiting beneath a tree
no one from the church
comes out to talk to me
to ask what it is I am doing
just as well
I don't feel like talking to anyone anyways

[Hypatia]

interesting poem
I do a five-mile lap
every two laps I stop at the Lutheran church
never occurred to me to wander
hardly ever talk to anyone
but occasionally someone will wave

I used to sit on a bench facing a big tombstone with only one name on it and a space for a spouse.
USAF veteran Vietnam I remember
other than that I don't wander among the graves
I feel naked being in a cemetery without a skull cap, I don't know
maybe then I could bring myself to wander and read if I had my head covered
don't tell me I am not superstitious
sometimes I ride through at night,

saw a star of David on one tombstone but from a distance
I have been thinking about becoming Lutheran, I wonder if they would make me a deal on a plot I can't refuse.

thanks for the poem amigo

[the mingo]

Thx for the read, Jack, appreciate it - I don't know about becoming a Lutheran though - there is a large graveyard at the southern edge of the village here - got roads going through it - if I'm going that way I usually bike on those roads between the graves - my favorite grave is toward the western edge
of the place - on the bronze veteran's plaque on the back of the headstone there are two names, a man's and a woman's - she was a nurse in an American military hospital in England and he was a combat pilot in an American bomber group during World War II - they must have met there and when they returned home they stayed together for the rest of their lives - there is a large maple tree growing next their grave - often I stop there, dismount, sit under the tree and eat peanuts & raisins that I've mixed together for the ride, drink coffee. Let the time pass as I think about two Americans I've never known who met during a great war and fell in love - came home and stayed together til death did them part - sometimes I sit there a long time. Then I strap my peanuts and raisin mix to the back rack, stick my coffee in the bottle holder, throw a leg over my mount and roll back out of there to the road.

People are apt to place importance on this thing or that thing but they are as wrong as they can be most of the time. For me it works out that what has importance comes to us along the way, touches us, makes us stop under a tree - then we move on different in a way that cannot be told or held in a hand.

To Don & Dawn ... I too have known war and I salute you every time I pass by. I hope you both had a good life.