A Working Epitaph

The Stone is not permission
It does not ask
It does not give
It simply serves
To remind
What little time we have
To Live








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I cross Waterloo Bridge twice a day. Whenever I do, I see Cleopatra’s Needle. It is older than the city it stands in by around a millennium-and-a-half and older than me by double that and 500 years. It was gazed upon by Ramases II, Cleopatra, Ceaser and Mark Antony (and those are just the big names).

The people who carved it are not remembered.

I barely know the name of the person who did my job before me.

I don’t even know the names of all my great-grandparents.

I wrote this poem and recite it to myself every time I see the needle.


To and from work.

Every day.