In Battle Grove Cemetery (Cynthiana)

In Battle Grove Cemetery

In the shadows of a statue

Lie two boys

who died

not for the Union

or the

Confederacy

but merely . . .

Because.

One was a year old in 1863;

the other

less than two in 1865.

Their graves are watched over

By a boy of seven or eight--

sitting on a rock,

 stone books beside him

            stone cap nearby--

                                    searching a far horizon,

Watching perhaps

for an uncle,

older brother,

or father

To return

and explain

   death.