one hundred nineteen acres
garden cemetery inside the city
didn’t always used to be that way
nobody imagined how urban crawl
would wrap around
a canopy of over two thousand trees
brick walls & wrought iron fencing
winding pathways & architectural beauty
all subdued by pastoral plantings
drawn up over fifteen decades ago
to be inside graceland is to be
outside of the ordinary
the dead walking among the living
inventing & articulating
playing catch
watching a rehearsal
bustling among the buyers & sellers
be they tourists or curious neighbors
or permanent residents
january two thousand twenty-two
copyright j matthew waters
all rights reserved
jdubqca 