#390: The Stone Woman

A poem

There’s a woman in the graveyard.
She looks out
a yearning face
onto a blank wall.

Once, she looked further
back before land was claimed
before the graveyard was protected.

She would have looked towards the graveyard wall,
and perhaps
above it
beyond it
onto the street.

I feel sorry for the woman
who stares at a blank wall so close —

but then I think of the house she would have looked across to.
What would it have been like
to stand in your bedroom window
and meet the gaze
of a stone woman?

Perhaps that household welcomed the wall —
to put between them and death a barrier
though not as firm
as the stone woman.

One day
the wall will fall
the house too may crumble
but the woman might be there
still

standing
staring
no longer at a blank wall
but an unknown, unseen
future

Katie writes regularly about random objects that she finds in her everyday life. If you’re interested in reading more, check out her blog Object, a collaboration with fellow Medium blogger Eleanor. You can also follow us on Twitter at@ObjectBlog.