Common Ground

Tragedy becomes a distant dream
After an enumeration of years
Dispels the bitter alluvial stream
Into the trail dust of futile tears.
Thusly pain, with pleasure, grows dim with age
Until even charmed nostalgia fades
Or crinkles along a scholars page
Well beyond the time all folklore degrades
Into the compost of future story,
Where, manured into elocution
Representing chivalry and glory
Or a long overdue absolution,
Stray tears drop again from cathartic thoughts
When graveyards and theater share their plots.