Stones

A year has passed

I am fat now

I have grown in knowledge but not in wisdom

I know better how to lie to myself and to lie still

A year had passed and nothing has changed

The world is worse but I am worse yet

A grandfather has died, two in fact; a building erected in one’s name; a small simple stone for the other

Are these my options for life and living, and dying? A stone or a pile of them?

What of a dead man still living? Is he better? What of his potential?

Yet nothing marks my name amongst these living dead

Perhaps I should die altogether sooner if these are the culmination! To the living I am not counted.

And if I die? Well I’ll have born some burden of proof—me and my small stone.