Since my mother died when I was small, I have been a lover of cemeteries. The two quoted lines in this poem come from actual gravestones, both in New England. The first quote is a variant of a poem that I've read on stones from New England to Boot Hill in Tombstone. A standard version goes like this: "Remember me as you pass by/ For as you are so once was I/ And as I am you soon will be/ Remember me." There are dozens of variants. The quote from the stone of a family of children, all felled in tender years, is again, quite common as old cemeteries contain many children felled in infancy or very tender years.
This poem, a modern sonnet, defined as one that only loosely follows sonnet form, is my homage to the Remember me poem, as in the final couplet, my narrator concludes what that poem warns people they should be doing - contemplating their own mortality and what that means.

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