THE DESERT NIGHT


Lie 'neath the desert night
Seeing the stars,
Pinpoints of distant light
Greater than Mars
Who rules man's life:
Yet in our pride, we see
This vastness made
That we might be,
That all would fade
Were we to cease our strife.


Lie 'neath the desert night
Feeling the space;
Feel all man's time in flight
Change not the place
Of stars who speed beyond our thought:
Feel, in some distant world,
The stirring of life once more,
Knowledge again unfurled
Yet turned not unto war
By those humility has taught.

JMT 1944