An End Steadfastly Approaches Poem by Nellie Isabelle Steward Cooper

The sun descends as though it bade farewell
The night comes on - How dark? - How close!
Heat lightning rims the black far mountains as we pause, blackening our path!

No flickering fireflies fly up like sparks tonight

They are gone away with the quicksilver salamanders

We walk to the sound of foot steps on gravel
In the empty air wordless and unknowing
No peeper peeps - nor breeze blows
Nothing astray in the wet grass alas

Nothing tells us except the fireflies and the salamander
There will be no stars again for us
No moon and no tomorrow

The brook that ran laughingly
In the summer meadow
Will not again flash
Nor the salamander dart
In the sunlight to it's crevice

Nor the fiery heart
Hid in the opal
Suddenly appear

Nor your smile cleave the dusk

Thus our final walk together

And beyond nothing- nothing beyond at all