“I took a walk on the railroad track.

Followed that for a while

and got off at the country graveyard

where a man sleeps between

two wives. Emily van der Zee,

Loving Wife and Mother,

is at John van der Zee's right.

Mary, the second Mrs. van der Zee

also a loving wife, to his left.

First Emily went, then Mary.

After a few years, the old fellow himself.

Eleven children came from these unions.

And they, too, would all have to be dead now.

This is a quiet place. As good a place as any

to break my walk, sit, and provide against

my own death, which comes on.

But I don't understand, and I don't understand.

All I know about this fine, sweaty life,

my own or anyone else's,

is that in a little while I'll rise up

and leave this astonishing place

that gives shelter to dead people. This graveyard.

And go. Walking first on one rail

and then the other."

“A Walk", Raymond Carver