| OBSERVE the clasped hands! | |
| Are they hands of farewell or greeting, | |
| Hands that I helped or hands that helped me? | |
| Would it not be well to carve a hand | |
| With an inverted thumb, like Elagabalus? | 5 |
| And yonder is a broken chain, | |
| The weakest-link idea perhaps— | |
| But what was it? | |
| And lambs, some lying down, | |
| Others standing, as if listening to the shepherd— | 10 |
| Others bearing a cross, one foot lifted up— | |
| Why not chisel a few shambles? | |
| And fallen columns! Carve the pedestal, please, | |
| Or the foundations; let us see the cause of the fall. | |
| And compasses and mathematical instruments, | 15 |
| In irony of the under tenants’ ignorance | |
| Of determinants and the calculus of variations. | |
| And anchors, for those who never sailed. | |
| And gates ajar—yes, so they were; | |
| You left them open and stray goats entered your garden. | 20 |
| And an eye watching like one of the Arimaspi— | |
| So did you—with one eye. | |
| And angels blowing trumpets—you are heralded— | |
| It is your horn and your angel and your family’s estimate. | |
| It is all very well, but for myself I know | 25 |
| I stirred certain vibrations in Spoon River | |
| Which are my true epitaph, more lasting than stone. | |
