Cemeteries

Matthew Manzella

 

New Orleans has its homes

for the dead.

My god are they beautiful,

magnificent limestone and granite

chambers above the ground

housing the decaying.

all adorned with flowers

both real and stone.

Names etched in memoriam for eternity

till wind or flood wears them down.

Its congesting at first,

the sheer amount of them

among each other

against each other.

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But then you realize it’s a neighborhood

with stone grey saints and angels

watching them dutifully

perching themselves to look upon the expanse

as the living pay respects.