Since Then

Mother Berry Statue, a photo by paynehollow on Flickr.

I found myself among the trees
What time the reapers ceased to reap;
And in the sunflower-blooms the bees
Huddled brown heads and went to sleep,
Rocked by the balsam-breathing breeze.

I saw the red fox leave his lair,
A shaggy shadow, on the knoll;
And tunneling his thoroughfare
Beneath the soil, I watched the mole--
Stealth's own self could not take more care.

I heard the death-moth tick and stir,
Slow-honeycombing through the bark;
I heard the cricket's drowsy chirr,
And one lone beetle burr the dark--
The sleeping woodland seemed to purr.

And then the moon rose: and one white
Low bough of blossoms--grown almost
Where, ere you died, 'twas our delight
To meet,--dear heart!--I thought your ghost....
The wood is haunted since that night.

A poem by Madison Cawein, Kentucky poet, 1865-1914