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A collection of short poetic epitaphs voiced by deceased residents of a small town, each monologue recounts private histories, unspoken grievances, and hidden passions to reveal the gap between public reputation and inner truth. The poems, delivered in plainspoken free verse, assemble a mosaic of communal life by alternating perspectives and tones—ironic, tender, bitter, and darkly humorous. Recurring concerns include love, betrayal, ambition, social hypocrisy, and lingering regrets, while the cumulative effect meditates on memory, mortality, and the complex ties that bind neighbors even after death.
Were you not ashamed, fellow citizens,
When my estate was probated and everyone knew
How small a fortune I left?—
You who hounded me in life,
To give, give, give to the churches, to the poor,
To the village!—me who had already given much.
And think you not I did not know
That the pipe-organ, which I gave to the church,
Played its christening songs when Deacon Rhodes,
Who broke and all but ruined me,
Worshipped for the first time after his acquittal?