It is odd that cemeteries are
quite often the site of oration,
soliloquies delivered with great emotion,
be it love, regret or anger.
Often they are paeans or jeremiads
meant to be delivered in person
but held back until it is only the stone
that bears the brunt of the words.
And yet a burden is lifted
from the speakers for they assume
the dead can hear them, must
listen without response, although
the crows in the nearby trees
act as a Greek chorus,
commandeering the stage,
and the speakers know that their words
have not fallen on deaf ears.