Arlington Cemetery

I choose the long turn
on Sheridan,
without the fires and screams,
took the walking trail
coated in pebbles and solitude
to end up adjacent to the sandy marble pillars
of the house once owned by
Robert E. Lee,

I circumvent the Kennedy grave
to pay respect to a man,
who at the very gray-butternut-least
did not attempt to hide
what he fought for,

The sky clears hot and blue
over the unknown tomb,
stark and white
against the greenish manicured background,

History sits back
and lauds your achievements,

Ignorance is both
the romance of
North and South.

I bought this new text book of walking history and it taught my students to mix water and concrete

The soil is weightless,
yet the trees form concrete walls,
a quiet liminality exposed,
past bleeds into present
clean air and the rumble of the automobile,

Thundering silence
and we shouldn't be here,
though we need to be;

understand or forget.
to ignore, and crucify
the steady beat of identity,
fragile and benign,

clouds heavy with rain
beating down,
a memorial hastily constructed,
following the bend and curve of road and river;

the discourse of commercial markets pursued, 
a discipline of asphalt and ignorance,
governments and private wealth,
a history of interstate highways,
walmarts, shopping malls, and
supermarkets to worship
and write about in circular ads.
the new history,
the new past,
heroes and gods
barely perceptible
a new identity dissolves.