At Sandberg's Grave
David Stephenson

It’s in a dismal hick town called Galesburg,
noted for patched roofs and lack of paint,
haphazardly laid out and large enough
for points of interest to be hard to find.

Traveling its streets past railroad tracks,
some empty storefronts and a post office
and a scowling gray-haired biker bar,
I found the trail and ended up before

a pair of wood frame buildings with a plaque.
The neighbor lady gave me the fish eye,
and it was clear that no one ever came.
Between the buildings was a good-sized rock,

Remembrance Rock, with ashes underneath,
and looking at it I thought it should be
much larger, maybe ten or twelve feet tall,
and carved and painted like a human heart.

- - -

David’s notes: “The poet and biographer Carl Sandburg was from near where I grew up, and I in fact have blood relatives in his home town, Galesburg, Illinois. I have always liked his poetry, especially Cornhuskers and Smoke and Steel. The poem recounts my visit to his gravesite, Remembrance Rock, in 2013. The picture doesn’t flatter me, but the rock looks good.

“‘At Sandburg’s Grave’ first appeared in Avatar Review in 2022, and is in my collection Secret Dance.”

- - -

David Stephenson is a recovering manufacturing engineer from Detroit, and the editor of Pulsebeat Poetry Journal. His latest collection is Secret Dance.

- - -

Hop to…

At Sandberg's Grave David Stephenson

At Sandberg's Grave
David Stephenson