VAGRANT VERSE

Southland Times, Issue 19898, 17 June 1926, Page 6

VAGRANT VERSE

FIRJT. (Written for the Southland Times.) For fifty years that home has stood And weathered Nature’s every mood. Oh had it but a tongue to tell Of all that in its walls befell It. would a wondrous tale unfold Of things that passed in days of old. One tells me that in days gone by It heard full many a happy cry And that its rafters loudly rung With tales they told and songs they sung That made the dark nights pass away As blithely as a Summer’s day. It carries her far back to times When youth but thought of marriage chimes, And life and love—the common theme— Seemed but one long unending dream. Births have been there, and girls and boys Have run about; sorrows and joys Have chased each other; while grim Death Has heard some sufferer’s final breath. But now across, the blustering air The fire-alarm sounds, and glare Of fire is seen, flames leap and glow And lay the storied structure low, Whose Lares and Penates lie But dust and ashes ’neath the sky. The Ghosts of Memories have sped, Afrighted on the wind that fled From West to East, unto the sea, Where they can drown their misery. —Robert Francis. Bluff , June 16, 1926.