Dear Ancestor
Author unknown
Your tombstone stands among the rest;
Neglected and alone.
The name and date are chiseled out
On polished, marble stone.
It reaches out to all who care,
It is too late to mourn.
You did not know that I exist
You died ‘fore I was born.
Yet each of us are cells of you,
In flesh, in blood, in bone.
Our heart contracts and beats a pulse
Entirely not our own.
Dear ancestor the place you filled
One hundred years ago
Spreads out among the ones you left
Who could have loved you so.
I wonder as you lived and loved,
I wonder if you knew
That someday I would find this spot,
And come to visit you.