Betsy Joseph
November 8, 2026
I am the repository
for the remains of the fully lived
and the barely lived descendants
belonging to a pioneering family.
Gladly have I shared this sacred space
upon this college campus,
made possible by the Motleys
who deeded the acreage for this site.
A white wrought iron fence surrounds me,
protecting twenty-five varied gravesites
of several generations of this family and their kin.
I now house the graves of slaves
once buried beyond the fence,
later moved to lie more securely within
and near the masters they served.
We are now fully complete, if not all named.
As for the twenty-five engraved epitaphs
resting throughout these grounds,
they are simple, often remarkably poetic
and speak to the past 170 years,
speak of lives lived during hard-luck times
of drought and wars and pestilence.
I proudly guard these gravesites
and the memories behind their names.
(The Motley Cemetery is located on the grounds of Eastfield College in Mesquite, TX)
Betsy Joseph lives in Dallas and has poems that have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies. She is the author of two poetry books published by Lamar University Literary Press: Only So Many Autumns (2019) and Relatively Speaking (2022), a collaborative collection with her brother, poet Chip Dameron. In addition, she and her husband, photographer Bruce Jordan, have produced two books, Benches and Lighthouses, which pair her haiku with his black and white photography.
