Walking amongst babbling tour groups

And unkempt statuettes

Completely unprepared




for the sight before my eyes
for a sheer wall of names


carved into a hillside of rock


A slope leading d




o



w




n
a long hill, then
p again to the world of people



u

Trodding silently through
the graveyard of names




I spied one to recognize




Sharon Lane, a nurse, midst the quiet, beating
heart
of a billion people lay
entombed in granite, nothing but a title to recognize


her hopes

Who were they? the thousands

of nameless, f c l s s



a e e
people


Will we remember them?

In the future, the burning candleflame of dreams
Will we recall

A single appellation who in bravery lived







with courage died
Will their scrambl?d prescence
coexist with our


brief, clumsy footsteps?







I see a rose



placed by the foot of a column

Its leaves flushing, blushing, illuminating





names, roughly scrawled,

above its glowing petals.