Cemetery Cleaning Day

Cemeteries should be lumpy places,

Filled with bumps and hollows.

Depressions should be left depressed

To fill themselves in nature’s time and nature’s way –

By oak trees shedding leaves,

By earthworms casting up their findings,

By winds shifting sand,

By ants cutting grass for winter gardens underground,

By streams rafting stones to fit their new-found beds.

Even on cemetery cleaning day, it’s best

To leave your rakes and shovels home.

They can’t improve on the system.

Only wind and rain and seasons passing

Can fill the hollows in the heart.

Wayne Danielson, May 1, 2000