special guest blogger thomas hardy

in time of the breaking of nations

only a man harrowing clods
with a slow silent walk
and an old horse that stumbles and nods
half asleep as they stalk

only thin smoke without flame
from the heaps of cut grass
but this will go onward the same
though dynasties pass

yonder a girl and a boy
come wandering by
war's annals will cloud into night
ere their story die