Ina Donna Coolbrith

* * *

  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, belovëd, 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!