Fragments

Our names are our identity,

How we are known in the world.

Family and friends fix us in their minds

With an appellation given at birth.

We are our name whatever we do

Even if we change it through deed poll,

Or become famous under another.

Our name will always say us.

But how are we to be remembered

If we fail to make a mark.

When we die our name lives on

Only in the memories of those who knew us.

Some, who live notable lives

Have names that survive the years,

Filling the pages of history books.

Greater still are those that are carved

In marble or granite, life eternal is theirs.

The heroes and the powerful,

The loved and the loathed

All achieve immortality in stone

While we, the common people

Are lucky to leave a fragment of bone,

We are fragments.

Fragments of a memory.

Colin Beardshall 2014