Your red flowers, beautiful, bloody, are fallen
In a silent reverence among the green leaves!
But you do not ask for water.
You can not talk!
You do not have to talk -
Everyone knows you suffer from thirst
And yet, I do not bring water!
They pass by, saying,
"Bite needs water."
I was too full of joy to share
And I missed to share my happiness with you,
I, who loved you, Spoon River,
And I long for your love,
I wounded under your eyes, Spoon River -
Thirsty, thirsty,
Too strange in the purity of the soul to ask for your love;
And you knew, and you saw how I put myself in front of you,
Like this bite that someone planted over my grave
And she let her die.
epitaph by Edgar Lee Masters of Spoon River Antology,