Dedication for a Plot of Ground

This plot of ground / facing the waters of this inlet / is dedicated to the living presence of / Emily Richardson Wellcome / who was born in England; married; / lost her husband and with / her five year old son / sailed for New York in a two-master; / was driven to the Azores; / ran adrift on Fire Island shoal, / met her second husband / in a Brooklyn boarding house, / went with him to Puerto Rico / bore three more children, lost / her second husband, lived hard / for eight years in St. Thomas, / Puerto Rico, San Domingo, followed / the oldest son to New York, / lost her daughter, lost her "baby," seized the two boys of / the oldest son by the second marriage / mothered them -- they being / motherless -- fought for them / against the other grandmother / and the aunts, brought them here / summer after summer, defended / herself here against thieves, / storms, sun, fire, / against flies, against girls / that came smelling about, against / drought, against weeds, storm-tides, / neighbors, weasels that stole her chickens, / against the weakness of her own hands, / against the growing strength of / the boys, against wind, against / the stones, against trespassers, / against rents, against her own mind.

She grubbed this earth with her own hands, / domineered over this grass plot, / blackguarded her oldest son / into buying it, lived here fifteen years, / attained a final loneliness and -- / If you can bring nothing to this place / but your carcass, keep out.