Beloved wife Of Antonio Lemas Died in Mendocino City Jan 17 1890 Aged 43 years and 4 months Peonies at the market, three to a bundle. You think to rest them on a stranger's grave. On hers. An offering. A weathered wood plank discarded across where the head would go. You clear it off. The grass beneath it stays bent. Grass grows beneath the beds of your beloveds, beneath your own bed. How much time has passed since a loved one has been here? A cathedral of absence. Home. Her name in the mouth of no one but yours. You arrange the flowers against the marble. The headstone rises in pale light.