Elegy

By Marjorie Allen Seiffert

I would be autumn earth, and hold

Your beautiful body, slain,

Where, lying still and cold,

Only the winter rain

Shall touch your limbs and face;

Where the white frost shall wed.

Your body to black mould

In the close, passionless embrace

Of that dark marriage bed:

I would be autumn earth, and hold

Your beautiful body, dead.