!Goretti Publications Gopherspace - Poetry
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Let All Men Wear the Purple
Donald P. Goodman III

Let all men wear the purple as the sky goes dark
and flowers wilt and die, and sun continues flight
to southern climes, and mighty Hunter through the night
pursues the Bull and Rabbit, and the geese embark
upon their constant voyage, and bare branches stark
thrust naked to the sky and shiver in their fright
of frigid winter which has stripped their coats so bright
and left them there to rot, a grim and silent mark.
Let all men wear the purple, and the dark embrace;
hold tight the desperation of the longest night:
the only glint of honor in our long disgrace,
the first and slightest glimpse of spring and youth's delight.