POEM: the women on the steps

the women on the steps
(for Hal Smith)

where are the women on the steps
even in the photograph they look
like ghosts, haunting the Old Main

which of them died in childbirth
or caught some wasting disease
that is now no more deadly than a cold

which gave birth to strong sons and daughters
who in turn had more children who in turn
had daughters and sons of their own
in a long line running through today

which of us — in a hundred years —
will be little more than props on a tour
our names forgotten, our ghostly faces
haunting the afternoon thoughts of poets

12 February 2013
Auburn, AL