No Longer Young

      Now that she is no longer young
      There is less of her
      In the measures of the birds;
      The partridges give voice
5     Less sweetly, and the rose
      Grips more blackly the earth
      Now that she is no longer young.
      Now that she is no longer young
      Do new ships and unfinished men walk lost,
10    The crippled dog mew at its wounds,
      And the sun go sick to bed each night?
      Does her pleading face fade away
      From its passion like this age
      Now that she is no longer young?
15    I do not know because I am blind
      To crudities of the compass point
      Or the minor perihelions of the sun.
      Enzymes of their medicines cannot chart
      The chemic regions of her skies;
20    The needle on the encephalograph
      Shakes no glory from her eye.

From the collection "Unimagined Things"

Written by Gregg Glory [Gregg G. Brown]

More information available on gregglory.com.