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must be off
The cemetery had this sign posted at every entrance. And no matter how many times I saw it, I could not figure out what it was meaning to tell me. It seems pretty important, but I never could get it. Just to be safe, though, and because I’m a rules-follower I didn’t leave any flowers.*
Route 66
Kellyville, Oklahoma
photographed 7.24.2026
*I mean, I wasn’t there to leave flowers and in fact, didn’t have any with me.
bottom of the barrel
The first time I ever looked into a cemetery trash barrel I felt guilty, like I was intruding on something I didn’t need to know about.
And maybe I was.
But I still do look inside of them. This one that I saw the other day in Oklahoma made me sad: all that’s left of someone’s birthday wishes to their beloved, deceased person was an R and an I. That’s not much, is it?
Mountain View Cemetery
Mountain View, Oklahoma
photographed 4.25.2026
just one saint at a time
Not to reveal too much about how much language amuses me (because honestly, it’s sort of embarrassing), but I did entertain myself saying “saint rest” in various ways.
Like a command to a wayward and wrongly-named dog: SAINT! Rest.
Like a mild way to say “fuck on off.”
Like an end to a prayer, in place of “Amen.”
Or the name of a particularly lackadaisical cleric – Saint Rest.
And so on.
But what really amuses me the most about this sign is the implication that, while they are willing to accept saints, there is a one-saint limit. Presumably for safety reasons.
Tahoka, Texas
photographed 2.28.2026
He’s no sissy
The main character in Tom Robbins’s novel Even Cowgirls Get the Blues is Sissy Hankshaw, who – with the help of her abnormally large thumbs – hitchhikes across America.
Unfortunately, the main character in the Evangeline Cemetery is physically unable to follow Sissy’s inspirational example.
Evangeline Cemetery
near Ville Platte, Louisiana
photographed 10.22.2017
conduit
Conduit*
- A pipe or channel for conveying fluids, such as water
- A tube or duct for enclosing electric wires or cable
- A means by which something is transmitted
Here’s a wall of a tomb, a tiny cross, and (possibly) several kinds of conduit.
Mamou, Louisiana
photographed 10.22.2017
*Thanks to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. And yes. I do own actual dictionaries and thesauruses (or thesauri, if we’re being formal), much to the great amusement of my friends and family.
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