POEM: BEFORE WINTER

The wind is crying in the night,

Like a lost child;

The waves break wonderful and white

And wild.

The drenched sea-poppies swoon along

The drenched sea-wall,

And there's an end of summer and of song -

An end of all.

The fingers of the tortured boughs

Gripped by the blast

Clutch at the windows of your house

Closed fast.

And the lost child of love, despair,

Cries in the night,

Remembering how once those windows were

Open and bright.