Talk of the Heart: A Summer Breeze

Nature is in a blazing flood of heat —
her face, from its scorching, drenched in sweat,
and the ears of wheat, at the peak of their ripeness, sway gracefully and rustle.
How lovely her blonde head! She tosses it coquettishly,
happy with the minutes remaining of her life...
not knowing what fate, tomorrow, will be hers!
And what power will pounce upon her and utterly crush... her ribs,
and put out her gentle hazel eyes,
and carry her off to inevitable extinction!!

And yesterday death visited our quarter —
it harvested heads blindly,
and swooped with its black talons upon a girl like a flower,
driving her — a cold body — to a grave dark and desolate,
as the storm drives the leaves of the trees into the rotting gutters,
heedless of a mother's wailing and a lover's burning grief —

I remembered, in the shudder of dreadful death,
the tale of the gentle blonde wheat-ear —
and I wondered at myself — a foolish, witless creature,
who seeks happiness with the hunger of the dog and its greed,
and rages and storms over the most trivial things!
And I felt the blood of health in my veins —
We praise Thee, O God, we praise Thee!
Safety first, then health and contentment we asked of Thee —
and let us take from the lessons of life a warning...