Jala Pfaff _______________________________ artist, writer, linguist

It’s all stone I see

But I see

That even stone doesn’t last forever

Some of the names have become blurred

I can’t tell if it’s ELVIRA or ELMIRA

Who lies here 

Blunted bones by now

Red earth removed in eighteen hundred eighty

To receive her, BELOVED DAUGHTER, MOTHER, WIFE

DOWNER HIGGINSWORTH LEWISTON RUSH

There are no Jews here

This is the settlers’ place 

From

When The West Was Won

I know only what I have read

McDERMOTT BUCHANAN IVES

Wagon trains gold strike tuberculosis 

FATHER INFANT SON

A single Union soldier 

HERE LIES A WOODMAN OF THE WORLD

I walk here daily

PRUITT BELCHER HUSSIE LEACH

Families inseparable side by side

FRANK HENRY FRED, stolid and

Their women in calico bonnets 

MILDRED IDA HORTENSE MATHILDA

And the tiny one which reads simply, BABY

I walk here daily

My dogs romping amidst lilacs and

Overgrown grasses

MARY MARGARET VIOLA BELLE

I walk here

A stranger, a Jew, and someone yet

Without a stone.