Old Stone-Cutter
His gravestones are his everlasting children.
He loves to get his cramped left hand around
the solid faithful feeling of his chisel
and dig the names of those below the ground
or the family names of provident ones above
who cross their fingers and defy the fates
and acknowledge death their enemy and master
by ordering headstones with their birthing dates.
He carves his holy head, a solemn cherub
with granite wings and childish eyes cast down.
Those who prefer a willowed urn, disliking
angels, can go and die in another town.
(From The North American Review , Vol. 248, No. 2,
1939, page 301)
Solemn cherub by Albrecht Dürer in 1514—
