Dear Ancestor

Dear Ancestor

Your tombstone stands among the rest
Forgotten and forlorn.
Your name and date are chiseled out
on slate and old limestone
It reaches out to all who care
It's not too late to mourn.
You did not know that I exist,
You died and I was born.
Yet, each of us are cells of you,
In flesh, in blood, and bone.
Our heart contracts and beats a pulse
Entirely not our own.
Dear (Susanna), the place you filled
So many years ago,
Spreads out among the ones you left
Who would have loved you so.
I know that you lived and loved,
But, I wonder if you knew
That someday I should find this spot,
and come to visit you.

author unknown

(read by Donna Rae Wurm at Susanna Cook stone dedication on 30 May, 2010)