found poem

Working in the basement
Of the CHP officer's home
In Alta Sierra

I looked about
For some random piece of lumber

To help level
The recycling bin I was standing on
To get at loose ceiling wires

"We feel unsafe with them like that"
He'd told me

On a corner mudsill
Between two-by-six studs
I pulled a flat slab of worm-eaten redwood

That served a long time
As grave marker
"This should do the trick" I thought

Hewn into it were the words

Marjory Lucero
Died April 3 1922
Age 17 days