We stop for directions
at a crossroads, just as service for
Remembrance Sunday ends

and all the verses
of Abide With Me
are done.

See how those living
men and women
linger there between the trees

around the church
to greet and chatter
as though that was all

there is or was –
and meanwhile see, oh see
how beautiful the feet

of their small children
playing hide and seek
among headstones

in morning sun that highlights
last night's frost
on grass and leaves,

on carved and lichened names
of father, mother,
daughter, son –

the word beloved
committed there
to stone.