Postlude......

The cold rain tolls the ending of a day
I stand alone within its weeping knell
On landscape dark in moods of silver-gray
Beneath the chiming of the lonesome bell

The absence of the lusty cricket choir
Magnifies the silence and the gloom
And in the gardens shady summer bower
No more the fragrance of its fragile bloom

Now fades the sky-line in the gathering night
Now the dark and daylight intertwine
Until the dark prevails; the only light
A glimmer on the vast horizon line

No sound at all to break this solitude
Save for the stubborn leaf with muted breath
Still clinging to the arm of somber wood
Before it yields to its imminent death

The cold rain tolls the ending of the day
Profluent melody in minor key
Within its knell the twilight slips away
In tones of comfort and sweet misery

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Janet Martin