Millie Tullis

It is not a ghost town.
There is no town.
It’s a place.
There is a sign and a road.

“Pinto Cemetery” was featured on Poetry Daily, March 2, 2026!

You can also read about the poem’s origins in my essay for What Sparks Poetry: Object Lessons:

As a child, I spent a good amount of time in cemeteries—especially considering that no one in my life would die for a long time. The dead arrived before me, but we visited often.

Our city cemetery was a short drive from home, but kitty-corner from my grandparents’ driveway. I invented cemetery games and played in the grass. I gathered the scattered, polyester flowers and divvied them between the barest headstones. I tracked the similarities in differences between the stones. I liked to read the names. I still do.