New Song For Memorial Day

We are the dead, who are not laid away,
For whom no flowers deck the quiet grave.
You passed us in the crowded street today;
Thinking of those gone back to earth, you gave
No second glance. We are the dead, who died
Not with one kind abandonment of breath,
Sudden and merciful; but dreams denied
And slow frustration worked a living death.
You will lay blossoms on a sunny slope
For those called dead, who cannot need them now;
And we shall take the subway with you, grope
Ever so slightly for your thought; then bow
The head again, and face the empty years
Dead without grace of tribute, or of tears.

HELEN FRAZEE-BoWER.