Will I too lie in this graveyard 

Forgotten

My ashes merged with loamy earth

Next to someone else’s headstone?

Unnamed

Sun shining on daisies and

buttercups

Wind wheezing between graves

Clouds forming

Rain falling

Weather uncertain

 

A walker passing by may pause

to  read the inscription 

chiselled in the stone 

Then stumble on some tufts of grass  

shorter  than the rest

Surmise that ashes still  lie  

in that bare patch 

 

The assorted photos are a mix of some of the grave sites and memorials I have walked past or visited .Some  are from Spain ,sometimes  huge headstones to individuals  or memorials to heros in the Civil War alongside statues of saints and poets.The Chinese memorial is to the General who in 1659 lost the great city of Xian to the Qing army ,and burnt himself to death.Some are nearer home culturally –the barrows of 5,500 years ago ,in the Cotswold Hills .The photo with the bluebells is next to a family  grave in a churchyard in Bath ,Somerset .

I searched my photos to find a photo of the graveyard which inspired this poem.But my memory was wrong , I didnt use my camera there .The image is clear in my head : a site I tripped over a few times while exploring the graveyard at St Marys ,Prestbury village .I visited my uncles  grave with my aunt ,his wife .He  has a name and a  plaque.But near him was a bare patch ,where maybe  once upon a time there had been a small stone .Now no name, no marker.

During my times in Cheltenham a favourite walk was from my aunts house ,across the Cheltenham Racecourse  through the fields ,and then a  cut through the graveyard to reach the village  pub in Prestbury .There, opposite the little church .we drank our cider.