Horse Man
Or the last of the colored headstones
Mt. Olivet Cemetery. great-great grandfather, Anthony Victor Despenza Jr. (1874-1950)
they tell me the gravestones were once
as vibrant as the homes, bright
as the gold tooth crowning
your mouth. it wasn’t always
a wash of white, you know. there was
yellow ochre, rust, terracotta too.
slate blue pigmenting the lime mortar
and coloring our grief. the cities
of the dead were brilliant once, and you,
horse man, still dazzle
salt physic and sienna.