a few words

etched in time

a prayer or thought

a verse or rhyme

a month, day and year

a beginning and end

a husband and father

a man and a friend

all that you were

all that you owned

an entire life

etched in stone

the granite weathered

the letters fade

the grass overgrown

where we were laid

neglected soon

no visits made

a life forgotten

a memory fades

(i thank my son, Bill Temple for allowing me to use his poem, 'epitaph' to write this poem. The original poem is in italics.)