Country Home

By Norris E. Vancleave © 1991

Issue: April, 1991

(See article about the inspiration for this poem.)

Oh country home so wan and gray,
Your rooms and halls are silent and still.
O'er your great mass sweeps time's decay,
And all is gone but nature's trill.

Oh monument to a worthy age,
You're the sweetest of the past.
Amid man's creation's you're much too sage
To tumble and fall into ruins at last.

It was yours to shelter, cuddle and please
Boys with patches on their knees,
And girls in print cloth dress and gown
To wear at home or in town.

If they were poor they didn't know it.
Their happy smiles would never show it.
their days were joyous and complete,
And their manners almost always sweet.

Oh country home so sad and lone,
Your wood is fast becoming dust,
And the nails that were to you as bone
Are falling apart in rust.

But somewhere in your ruined veil
Is a spirit that will never die,
A way of truth that cannot fail
Freedom's foes to shame and defy.