Frozen Bronze

For a moment
walking on the Church Street Mall 

under a clear blue sky 

the statue of Big Joe Burrell 

becomes a 

memory of 

       the man too soon gone.

And then it is

       frozen bronze. 

Walking past the statue of Big Joe Burrell 

on the Church Street Mall

         memories lost.

Zphx, 20101113


We shall lose one advantage of a man's dying if we are to have a statue of him forthwith.  A man will have to add a clause to his will, "No statue to be made of me." H. D. Thoreau, Journal, September 18, 1859