this slab of rose marble

this slab of rose marble
shouldn’t change anything
your little lifeless body
has always been buried here
resting underneath a wreath and an elephant rattle

this slab of rose marble
shouldn’t make you more dead
or your death more real to me

as i stand here staring at it
i realize it’s not the slab of rose marble
that feels like a knife in my eyes

it’s the name engraved on it
it’s the e and the t and the g
that should be on a baby blanket
or your first smocked summer dress

your name does not belong
on this slab of rose marble

and yet here it is
and yet here you are
and yet here i see

a world of horror and a world without you
that i can never now
unsee.