Earth Never Knows

She tells me it will not be hard to go

Under the sod and snow,

And fears their deep encumbrance not at all.

"T shall not mind," she says, "for over and over

The spring will cover me with its wave of clover;

And I shall hear forever the rain's fall,

Restful and slow.

Ill wave windflowers forever in the sun,"

She says, "and with an elm beside the wall

I shall have many lives instead of one!"

And I have seen this earth, that never knows

What kind of flower it grows.

How shall I say, " Windflowers do not feel

With a girl's swiftness. No, not joy or pain."

How shall I say, "The roots of elms that steal

Numbly beneath will find you just as numb."

Or say, "There'll be no rest in falling rain,

Earth does not hear it come."