The ceremonies of the day have ceased, <br />Abandoned to the ragged crow's parade. <br />The flags unravel in the caterpillar's feast. <br />The wreaths collapse onto the stones they shade. <br /> <br />How quietly doves gather by the gate <br />Like souls who have no heaven and no hell. <br />The patient grass reclaims its lost estate <br />Where one stone angel stands as sentinel. <br /> <br />The voices whispering in the burning leaves, <br />Faint and inhuman, what can they desire <br />When every season feeds upon the past, <br />And summer's green ignites the autumn's fire? <br /> <br />The afternoon's a single thread of light <br />Sewn through the tatters of a leafless willow, <br />As one by one the branches fade from sight, <br />And time curls up like paper turning yellow.<br /><br />Dana Gioia<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/veterans-cemetery/
