I visited a graveyard,
My grandma had died,
I saw something special,
It touched me inside.

A stone placed in tribute,
A thing of great beauty,
To honor two policemen
Who died while on duty.

It was made like a heart
With two separate pieces,
But it's hard to tell where
One begins and one ceases

Except for the colors
Of day and of night,
One half, black as jet,
The other pure white.

White granite, black onyx,
Forged forever together,
Withstanding the elements,
Exposed to the weather.

On the white, "Beloved Partners",
On the black, "Treasured Friends",
Underneath "Me and Thee,
Forever begins."

I admit I was curious,
I needed to know
What had happened to these men
So long ago.

My mother was happy
To tell me their story,
The pride of our city,
They went out in glory.

They were closer than brothers,
Best friends to the last
And they protected each other
From whatever passed.

When one was in trouble,
The other was there,
And when they were wounded,
The pain they would share.

They survived many heartaches,
And each cared for his brother,
It seemed each one's happiness
Was bound up in the other.

On a warm day in May
They answered a call,
A robbery in progress,
The danger seemed small.

But once they got in there,
They found they'd been led,
An old enemy trapped them
And wanted them dead.

The men were outnumbered,
Their chances were slim,
But still they kept fighting
For some way to win.

The blond was the first one
To fall to the ground,
The dark one kept fighting
Never looking around.

He knew that his partner
Was dead as he fell,
And he grabbed his friend's gun
And sent two men to hell.

The others soon felled him,
But he still wouldn't die,
He screamed in defiance,
Cursed them to the sky

Till a shell finally stilled him
And brought him to lie
Right next to his partner
Where he'd have wanted to die.

Who remembers Butch Cassidy
And the Sundance Kid?
It wasn't heroic things
That they did.