A portrait from five hundred years ago
Full of complexity of life, fast caught,
As wide and intricate a mind on show
As any living now, and one who ought
In any equity to be a friend we know.
But their experience, and all they learned and taught
Long rotted dust that helped some plants to grow
Gone to the dark, with all they knew and thought.
It seems impossible that all of us must die
Of all inequity this is the chief
That we who live and love and learn and try
Must end and cease, with only this relief
Some work survives sometimes, to catch the eye,
A jolt of joy, an avalanche of grief.
24th September 2021
