requiem

“The night has a thousand eyes, and the day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies with the dying sun.”
—Francis William Bourdillon
 
blushing eve sun stoops down
behind day’s hedge
to keep, too weary grown,
his solemn pledge
to populate the world
with fragrant light;
man and his beast are hurled,
thus, into night.
 
day-roses yield their eyes
to slumbersongs,
nocturnal lullabies
their sleep sarongs;
high-mountain rivers keep
their vigilance,
a never-ending leap
swept not by chance.
 
for they, while others sleep
deep in the night,
must diligently steep,
in ocean flight,
what dreams they can afford
to keep awake
—an umbilical cord,
for heaven’s sake!
 
man, in his haste to live,
keeps toilsome watch,
with no corroborative
for time’s mismatch;
when sleep falls heavy on
his countenance,
night’s full oblivion
voids day’s last dance.
 
© Copyright 2024 May 19  
by Clyve A. Bowen♫