Epitaphs

Today I though I'd talk about epitaphs, or a summary statement of commemoration for a dead person. We had to write these for my english class while reading The Spoon River Anthology. Here's mine.

Epitaph of a Dead Memory
by Alissa Rosado P4

"At last at rest," the reverend ended,
and all dressed in black they went home
with the solid realization and frightening memory
of the dark sunken eyes and the bright scarlet throat.
Of the faded yellow hair that once had fingers ran through it,
or of the swollen, close eyelids with diamonds underneath.
Of the boney old hands that once clutched the chains of swings
with fingers that once filled the space between another's -
and on the fourth was worn a dream that never came true.
Why then, did she wear it?
The once rosy pink cheeks were now bleached an icy winter white,
with the lips painted as red as fresh blood for the services.
The ears that once held dainty daisies behind them could no longer
listen to the sounds of happiness and love,
or have a phone pressed against them, listening to
the voice of a lover
until the star silently slide behind the clouds like ghosts.
But this night was indeed different, no stars out tonight -
just the endless black hole that served as the pit
for the beautiful broken memory,
now forever dead and gone.

I thought it was pretty good, hehe. I really enjoyed writing these, because you are telling a person's life story in a creative, and kind of indirect way. You can just give hints or clues about what happened in their life, and leave the rest up to the reader, or connect two or more epitaphs. That's what I found really intruiging about the Spoon River Anthology. There was up to like 7 epitaphs that were all connected or centered around one event, each epitaph giving a different angle to the situation, telling another side to the story. We also had the chance to play the Spoon River Anthology game in the computer lab. It was very much connect to the book, but you had to walk around, solve mysteries and set souls at rest so they could move on to the next life. It was kind of funny and weird, but everyone seemed to like it even though it was a little cooky. Haha. We had to mount our epitaphs onto a gravestone that kind of connected to our epitaph, and I made mine into the shape of a star, since the name of my person was Lucinda R. Star, and stars were also mensioned in the epitaph.

Now, I hate to point fingers, but I just had to share this, since it left my laughing my head of for about 15 minutes straight. My "friend" (haha just kidding), Taylor Stringham, forgot our epitaphs were due, so he hurried and wrote down whatever came to mind first, and this is what he came up with:

Is life worth it? Oh I spent my life in that factory Oh I hated that place Life was good before the factory came when I married my wife she told me she loved me but told her mother she did not then the day I got ill my temperature as high as the sun my wife didn't care for me then the day I was well once more I went to a mountainous place that's when I found my wife didn't care at last it was over.
-Taylor Stringham 2010
Attempt at an epitaph in Mrs. Anderson's 9th grade English class

I don't know about you, but I thought it was pretty hilarious. Anyhow, that's enough about ephitaphs for one day! :)