Mr. Whalen Needs a Tombstone

That's what the inmate bulletin board read
Of Friend Ed Whalen, quietly taken
G.E.D. tutor and poet for men
Whose tattooed fingers swore HATE on the right
While LOVE, what's left of it, no longer bled.

But why would Ed want his name carved in stone
When all through life his body politic
Attempted to earn a mantel instead?

He didn't. He loved, however, sculpting
Poor spirits, tasking his student to find
A metaphor for brotherly love
Everyone else misread.