To the Veterans of Brooklyn

Even though they wished one to forget the City and become lost in the “natural” wilderness, in Central Park, Olmsted and Vaux deliberately hid signs of their art for only the most discerning visitor.
—The Blue Book Guide to New York City

Near Green-Wood Cemetery there is a smaller park.

It is also solemn: To the Veterans of Brooklyn.

The statue is tall, grave stone. Though upright it arcs

As if among the gravestones of Green-Wood. There is a tin

Flower at its foot. Bright and metal, the kind that spins,

It is held in a glass bottle. There is a black, dry pen

And cracked, brown leaves by the scattered thin grass. Finally then,

The last fall leaves lift; and the pinwheel flower moves in the wind.

—EWW