A poem that incorporates two different rhyme schemes, producing two subtly different results. It was difficult but fun to write.
Lawn (a)
It was fine lawn grass, still bright with dew
And middle-morning light, cool on bare feet;
The air was sweet with pines, the sky was blue
With fleet white sailing-clouds in sunlit heat.
A hundred doves and pigeons cooed their grey
Feather-down plenitude high in the trees
Against the green grass slope of summer’s day.
All these were tokens of the season’s ease.
Now there’s kikuyu and the lawn is gone,
The pines have been cut down, the out-buildings
And working things about the yard torn down;
The sting of absence that remembrance brings,
Constricting, swollen tight like summer pain
Through forty years that will not come again.
Lawn (b)
It was fine lawn grass, still bright
With dew and middle-morning light,
Cool on bare feet; the air was sweet
With pines, the sky was blue with fleet
White sailing-clouds in sunlit heat.
A hundred doves and pigeons cooed
Their grey feather-down plenitude
High in the trees against the green
Grass slope of summer’s day. All these
Were tokens of the season’s ease.
Now there’s kikuyu and the lawn
Is gone, the pines have been cut down,
The out-buildings and working things
About the yard torn down; the sting
Of absence that remembrance brings,
Constricting, swollen tight like summer pain
Through forty years that will not come again.
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