In Time of Drouth

The sun this morning is of no avail,

Shining upon a land that cannot cast

One sparkle back. The walls are dead with dust;

The maples do not lift a single leaf;

And all of the way to the village, down our slope,

The meadows have forgotten being green. 

Yet look to the left a little. There is brightness.

There, in the angle of two ancient fences,

Dark tall cedars spread their pleasant boughs

Over a few white gravestones that the sun

Now catches full. You see them flash and smile.

Only the dead this morning are not old. 

Credit

This poem is in the public domain.