Things can get hectic
in the office on Mondays
but at lunchtime I take
my constitutional walk
through the local village
crossing the churchyard
on my way.
The newly-tended graves
remain linked to the living
though they speak not to me
for I delve deeper within
to seek the overgrown
neglected ones of a century
or more ago
drawn to those headstones
that are now forever unread
or weatherworn to illegibility
in the zone where all names
are unremembered.
Returning thus refreshed
my colleagues wreathed
in their world of surfaces
find me to be no different
nor perceive that my mind
has a Buddha’s smile inside
for the dead, the long dead,
have once again bequeathed
their wisdom upon me.
in the office on Mondays
but at lunchtime I take
my constitutional walk
through the local village
crossing the churchyard
on my way.
The newly-tended graves
remain linked to the living
though they speak not to me
for I delve deeper within
to seek the overgrown
neglected ones of a century
or more ago
drawn to those headstones
that are now forever unread
or weatherworn to illegibility
in the zone where all names
are unremembered.
Returning thus refreshed
my colleagues wreathed
in their world of surfaces
find me to be no different
nor perceive that my mind
has a Buddha’s smile inside
for the dead, the long dead,
have once again bequeathed
their wisdom upon me.
