A Headstone Forever Blank

He died that night In a cheap motel In Maryville Tennessee $35.00 Karma mixed with The smell of curry Coming from the front office No one would ever understand Why he chose to die here Especially those few Who claimed to know him well The gravel parking lot The towels You could see through And the lawn chairs inside For furniture Made the connection, and the Endless search Real In a way it hadn’t been before As he sat outside his room Thinking about the end The local construction workers Remembered his name As they called out to him At the end of their day Marking their time By a weekly rate In their rooms down the hall They remembered the little things His own family Had forgotten Or not so little, AND THEN HE DIED In his $35.00 motel room His fortune, just buried memory With its headstone forever blank (Newport Tennessee: April, 2013)