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William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. (1878–1962). Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1920.

Overhead

WHEN you and I are laid away

In little boxes under grass,

What will the townsmen say of us

When overhead they smile and pass?

“She was a lovely, quiet thing

Who kept her house so neat and gay.

She was as much in love with life

As she is satisfied today.”

“He was the brightest man we had;

He kept us laughing till he died.

It seemed he only had to speak,

And we would chuckle at his side.”

Then you and I will rap the boards

And call in language of the dead—

But there’ll be nothing we can do

To stop that chatter overhead.

Harper’s Magazine