Class of 1958

Linda Gemmell Memorial

I drive myself back

after twenty absent years

over hard packed Long Island sand.

.

Here in this peaceful pine grove

the past crashes through the silence

to echo from these solemn stones

and it is good to be back

among old friends and neighbors.

.

The road surrounds three ovals

and in the third I find her name

on the unsuspecting granite

each letter chiseled on my heart.

.

Here I fall and weep

tell her how sorry I am

and carefully place the roses…

the ones I have carried, clenched tight

for nineteen years.

.

Richard G. Beyer

.