This Land He Owns Poem by William F Dougherty

This land he owns, by heritage and deed,
a swatch of consecrated soil whose unhealed lots
and withered seams betray their sudden need,
incorporating within numbered plots
before three months had healed the first, his worth
of parents. No marble breaks its polished face
to bear their dates of peace or dates of birth,
or bear their names who here resumed a place
together, tenanted past his dismay
whom twice a stranger's voice had cleft, unnerved,
summoned home to witness the invested clay,
and learn parental wishes had reserved
a berth by them; to which he weaves no rune:
stoic this land he owns may own him soon.