The Cry Poem by Virna Sheard

They have laid him away;
Even he who was always so strong and gay
Will be locked in the earth till the judgment day;
'Dust unto dust' I have heard the priest say.

He will never return;
Though I weep my eyes blind, though I pray and yearn,-
Though the star-light goes out and the great suns burn
Into whitest ash,-he will never return.

So of weeping-no more;
It is tears fill the oceans from shore to shore;
They have made the wind salt-the wind at my door;
They harm the good ground-so of weeping-no more.

'Not again!' 'Not again!'
Do you hear the sea singing that one refrain?
The pine trees, the wind and the wearysome rain
All whisper it; 'Never again!'-'Not again!'

Who can tell me-who knows,
Where his lonely soul travels?
Whither it goes?-
Has he gone like the leaves?-Like yesterday's snows?-
Speak, dear Lord of Death! You who died-and arose!