Ah Mary, I love your interpretations. This may give you an insight - it is an old man looking towards the grave of his long passed wife That is the "slab of gray juts up", and the "lichen's patient crawl" signifies that the gravestone has been there a long time. Lichen, which is a symbiotic relationship between a fungus, a bacteria and sometimes a yeast, slowly grows on old stones and tree bark. Both he and his dog are nearing the end of their life, so he is reminiscing.
Ah Mary, I love your interpretations. This may give you an insight - it is an old man looking towards the grave of his long passed wife That is the "slab of gray juts up", and the "lichen's patient crawl" signifies that the gravestone has been there a long time. Lichen, which is a symbiotic relationship between a fungus, a bacteria and sometimes a yeast, slowly grows on old stones and tree bark. Both he and his dog are nearing the end of their life, so he is reminiscing.