(second edit) The Broken Circle

based on a plaque dedicated to the 16th-century Colchester martyrs, executed for their Protestant beliefs  

The names adorn a marble plaque outside  
a hall in which exams and job fairs are held.  
The monument recalls an age weird and wide  
where personal philosophies would kill,  
based on a dark faith hallowed and chill.  
The steps of Colchester's town hall are hard  
and sharp in edge. The austere marble white  
with night-black veins.  
 
The etched remains of these dead Protestants  
reside in this flat stone to show a passerby  
that nought survived the fires of this world.  
Can the circle guiding us from life to death  
and life anew break like hollowed bones  
to leave us without lasting breath, alone  
among our marble plaques? The martyred know  
or knew perhaps.