Springtime in Nova Scotia

Soggy bones, bleached grey,
                       resting thin fingers
                       on pale beam of May
                       while lions guild moist
                       red brick lawns

                       (my fog of salted
                        pea nuts gnawing on the noon.)

Rambling round Dartmouth, I've
                       seen bright cords,
                       pink, orange, lemon green
                       knotted to remember,
                       as freely, they wander
                       round tree whose tips
                       reveal flesh of Spring
                       beneath brass cross
                       above the funeral hall.

"Pass a few so swiftly fleeting years

and all that now in bodies live

Shall quit like me the vale of years

Then righteous sentence to receive."

Tombstone of Edward DeWolf

who died March 7th 1836, 

in the 34th year of his age.