School Epitaph Poems

Just a wisp of a girl, dainty as a rose
Dark as the color of bitter-sweet cocoa
From her short hair to her perky nose
A black queen...

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Epitaph for My Father, an Everyman

(Written with John Hughes in mind, 
      as he will understand)

One night in particular, I...

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I
I tried not to mention the crime
Siblings, it is high time
America stopped self-flagellation,
Self-hate, self-abnegation

II
I feel for him, brother George ("of the earth")
I came close, but...

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Elegy for a little girl, lost
by Michael R. Burch

. . . qui laetificat juventutem meam . . .

She was the joy of my youth,
and now...

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George Fulwider
1837-1918

My beating-heart age,
Reached the half century mark,
When I and my “better second,”
Found hopeful roots,
And an oleander trellis,
On burgeoning Philadelphia street, 
Here in this Quaker...

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Kenneth Standish
1912-1919

We lived on Newlin Street in a gray house,
Across from the Catholic church, St. Mary’s.
I loved going to the Mass every morning,
Which I did...

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Frank Lane

1877-1913

RS was my best friend,

A friend ever to the end.

Together we footed and mounted 

The pliant limbs of the Hybrid Tree

On County Road,

And wetfully...

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Grace Thompson

1894-1917

At the timbered railroad depot,

On lower Philadelphia Street,

Across from the lumber yard and the state school there,

I spent many an erstwhile afternoon,

Sitting and worrying...

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George Schultz

1898-1917

I was reposing voiceless on my deathbed,

As with the silent fog on a winter’s morning,

On the way out of here from kidney failure,

And as...

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Emma Riesgo

1897-1919

Alas, I was just a simple soul.

Born second in the corner house,

Over on old Washington Street,

Just a short stroll,

From the college there,

My mother labored...

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Orville C. Cameron

1889-1914

Oh, such larks indeed.

Over at the State School pond,

Way back in the tuft of Eucalyptus shade,

We swam, we yelled, and we laughed.

We, the...

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Nellie B. Chandler

1897-1911

There I am.

Here I am now.

I am the six year old girl

Behind the glass window

That wide open wedge to the north

From inside my...

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On my epitaph don't write I was a saint, 
When I actually know I ain't, 
I was a vulture, 
Disrespectful, refused to follow culture, 
Write...

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How many goodbyes are in a lifetime? 

Saying goodbye
 to go to school
 to go to work
 to travel separately away
 to end a visit...

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 The modern Knight 

The Knight of the realm ,
Was a great man of courage,
Who protected the people,
Got dubbed by the King,

The bravest of brave,
Moralitys...

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