Grace Elizabeth Poem by Liilia Talts Morrison

I found a gravestone in the woods
Concealed by twigs and moss
Dank leaves its lone memorial
With branches gently crossed

Kneeling to view this startling find
I brushed aside the layers
Then noticed an inscription carved
On a small stone, now bare

The listing of a woman’s name
Two dates - a birth and death
Were scant reminders of a soul
Called Grace Elizabeth

A little more than fifty years
Had been her time on earth
By now a century had passed
Since her forgotten birth

Yet someone added a short mark
On that abandoned grave
An adage branded in my heart
Writ ‘neath that woodland nave

This death, it read, was ‘Earthly loss’
She had not died in vain
For where she went, someone believed,
Was surely ‘Heaven’s gain’

If you explore a backwoods path
Tread soft near gentle mounds
Beneath the moss and leafy layers
May well be hallowed ground.