The Stone Wall Builder’s Song
after Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “A Death Song”
I lie down lower than the crickets in the grass.
The wind plays the willow like a tambourine.
I’m laying low, just listening to the song.
It says, Sleep, honey, take your rest at last.I lie down next to the lily-padded pond.
The water is quiet as a real cool dude.
A chorus of sparrows chirp in the brush,
Children’s voices heading home from school.My shoulders free from hauling anymore stone
Don’t mind nudges from the critters below.
My rest unbothered by the buzzing bees—
Content, at last, among the work I’ve known.