Also called Stamps Cemetery located in
the mountains of East Tennessee.
Some graves new, many old
and decaying,
made of sandstone.
Inverted stars on a few graves,
mistaken for pentagrams,
which is why the cemetery is
wrongly thought to have
evil witches buried in it.
Some old Tent stone graves,
two long thin slabs propped up
against two triangular caps
at the ends, often with
headstones – maybe to protect
corpses from animals. Maybe
just tradition.
Many people named Stamps
buried there, one named
Stanford Stamps born in 1811,
died in 1895, age 84.
No witches, only about 80
regular people buried there.
Many tombstones from the 1800s.
More are new.
No ghosts, maybe the Stamps
Cemetery is too boring for them,
or the good religious mountain
people all went to heaven
instead of hanging around dead.
Some old graves had flowers
in front of them. Many had coins
on the tops of the tombstones.
Perhaps the coins were symbols
of good luck in the afterlife.
No one seems to mess with the
coins, perhaps for fear
of being cursed or
out of profound respect
for the dead.
The cemetery is serene
with only the sounds of
birds chirping in the background.
Perhaps the birds are singing
sweet dirges for the dead.
Got a good peaceful feeling
seeing that cemetery on YouTube,
wouldn’t mind being buried in a
peaceful cemetery like that
when I die.
Bob Boyd
