When the grass shall cover me,
Head to foot where I am lying;
When not any wind that blows,
Summer-blooms nor winter snows,
Shall awake me to your sighing:
Close above me as you pass,
You will say: 'How kind she was, '
You will say: 'How true she was, '
When the grass grows over me.
When the grass shall cover me,
Holden close to earth's warm bosom;
While I laugh, or weep, or sing,
Nevermore, for anything:
You will find in blade and blossom,
Sweet small voices, odorous,
Tender pleaders in my cause,
That shall speak me as I was -
When the grass grows over me.
When the grass shall cover me!
Ah, beloved, in my sorrow
Very patient, I can wait-
Knowing that, or soon or late,
There will dawn a clearer morrow:
When your heart will moan: 'Alas!
Now I know how true she was;
Now I know how dear she was' -
When the grass grows over me!
Ina D. Coolbrith
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/when-the-grass-shall-cover-me/
