An Elemental Elegy
Mårten Jansson
Wildflowers spread across the hillside green
A single ash stands sentinel.
Sparrows flit amid the lazy sway
Of tall grass in the whispering wind.
Glassy water touched by dragonfl ies
Beneath, a flash of silver minnows
Deeper still lie the woods beyond,
With many paths for wandering.
This idyll may soon be but a memory,
As plans and progress shall advance.
They burn the flowered hillside bare,
Root up the signal ash,
Drain the pond and pave the meadow
And, greedy, eye the woods beyond.
Now the wildflower grows through cobblestones,
And sparrows nest among the chimney stacks.
Profound the harm we've done to Her, and yet
Nature, ever-changing, elemental, finds a way.