The Cemetery

The barbed fence
you insisted was keeping
intruders out and not us in
loomed against New York’s
only constant—light
spitting upward to
the unabashedly nude
sky. A plane gargled
and grunted over us
moving diagonally from the South to the Northern
plantation of cloudless
refractions of black-blue
night. An amorous reaper
scraping it’s heavy tool
along a flight path long torn open
with brutally ineffable
“whys?” Wisława couldn’t tell
us, neither can you, officer,
and neither can K. or I. Wisława
couldn’t give us a last line,
neither can you, officer,
and neither can K. or I.


— Peter Burzynski


The Cemetery is part of a longer piece by Peter Burzynski entitled The Cemetery Sideshow and first appeared on Between the Essence and the Descent. I received it on October 21, 2011 at the Academy of American Poets Awards Ceremony in New York City.

Visit Between the Essence and the Descent to learn why a photo of the 9-11 Memorial accompanies this piece, the story behind the poem, and a video of Peter reading the poem in three parts.