Madrigal of Life

The evening melds its long blue bars of dusk across the land

The sweltering orb of middle-day resigns

Pale moon, half-circle whisper on an oceanic strand

Breathes grace into the gasp of our designs

While monumental miracles hold galaxies in place

Reminding us of Oracles beyond this temporal space

Our triumph and our failure on life’s battlefields are strewn

Yet, in the end what little still we know

As twilight slips its coral robe across the azure noon

And midnight snuffs eve’s silk and satin glow

Still, grace in immortal supply

Fills every space twixt earth and sky
 

Seasons expand and overflow draining to fathoms past

A folding over ever-folding climb

And just as twilight cannot halt the long blue shadows cast

So too, no one can pause one gasp of Time

But simply marvel that such grace

Should suffer for the human race

As long as time remains the kings of things will rise and fall

The rich and poor alike return to dust

The wind across the grave will moan one common madrigal

Above the termination of our lust

And only what we’ve stored beyond earth’s thorn and thistle bowl

Will endure through eternity while ceaseless ages roll

© Janet Martin