Memory

I would fain forget so many things,

Like reading of wars and capering

                         Kings;

And yet recall the long lost day,

The close of the village school in May;

Recall the tears in many eyes,

The last handclasps and the last goodbyes;

The whispering wind that dropped its load

In the yard near a house by the side of

                          the road

Though it stole the petals from my rose-

                         laden tree

It left their nectar through the years

                          with me.

                                                                V.C.