William James Still, Drowned In The Delaware River Poem by Ernest Hilbert

October 23rd,1898, Gloucester County

When I think back so far, light and shape blur,
As the sun-shot leaves above did for you,
Drowned, snug in muck, staring up to the world.
Just as the jokes and leaps on shore spurred
The picnic on, like life, history's glue
Slung you to river bottom, caught and furled.
How long before they paused, and you were missed?
Did noon light waft through the slow green to you?
How long before they began to gather?
The cold edge of the world closed on you, kissed
You shut. To the first searchers, surfaces threw
Back mirrored sky, hid your tortured weather.
The fairgrounds, littered with bunting and trash,
Grew cold also. Great bonfires sank to ash.