While wandering deep in forest cool,
I sat me down by silvery pool,
On hassock made of deep, soft grass
Leaned back, and simply let time pass.
My eyes flew wide upon that day,
For a moss-strewn skull in grasses lay.
It seemed enchanted, lost in time,
Asleep and dreaming its dreams sublime.
My heart took flight and began to yearn
For lives unlived and things unlearned.
I pondered on its stories untold
As questions form and then unfold.
I asked the eyes, now gone, but green,
About the wonders they had seen;
What beauteous sights they had beheld,
What lofty thoughts their skull had held.
In ages past were you fair maid,
Or gallant knight your fortune made?
Or were you merely serving wench,
With saucy wink for every pinch?
Or were you farmer in the field
Sweating, coaxing forth its yield?
What love and passion imbued your life;
Gazed you on children, had you a wife?
Had friends and lovers come and gone,
Or had you lived your life alone?
How did the forest become your grave;
A life, forsaken, it could not save?
What violence did you inspire,
That the only course was to expire?
What murd’rous rage left riven head,
Then let it lay in grassy bed?
Were you evil, or were you good?
Would you answer, if you could?
No answers will be shared, alas,
By the silent skull deep in the grass.

Copyright July 2002, J Montgomery