bout de papier, Vol. 7, No. 4 (1990), p. 38
Snow sculptured over night,
The landscape’s pure white puffery,
The vaunted winter wonderland!
But rising wind so easily undoes
Nature’s Christmas handiwork.
And so with life upon this earth!
Three sterling friends* , entered on
The age of wisdom and experience,
Fine sculptured, too, these worthies,
Just now wasted, seemingly
By Nature, who created them.
But hold, that is an illusion!
Nature has made her plan:
The continuity of life is her concern –
The recreation of the species.
Mortality of the individual is the law.
So grieve we only our personal loss
And look with joy upon the offspring!
Reincarnation, of a sort, assures
Our colleagues’ immortality.
And henceforth, God only knows,
What more for them – and for us —
Beyond life’s groping search
With yet imperfect sense,
For reason of the miracle
Of human kind upon this earth.
* Dedicated to André Bissonnette, Esmond Butler, and Frank Stone.
View the original scanned pages →
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 7, No. 4 (1990), p. 38. Read the rest of this issue →
