RoseAnne: In Memoriam

Sleep softly child, sleep softly
The winds of change blow slowly
And we are a small moment in time
That builds slowly and passes swiftly.

In our long and troubled history
Movements have been made, revolutions have come to pass
And men rise to carry the banners
And take the blame and the praise.
Civilizations rise and fall, cultures and traditions pass
But we the people continue on
Living and learning and building and dying
We individual blocks of humanity
Are the stuff from which civilizations rise
We are the spiritual and physical beings
That occupy time and space
And produce a world of life and death
A world of growth and change.

It is not ours to know the time
Nor to determine the place
We enter a world of life
We travel a path of change
We commit our lives to causes
That we had no part in beginning
That we will have no part in ending
But it is ours for one brief moment
To hold the banner – to carry the flame
And our duty is done.

Sleep softly child, sleep softly
The dust that reposes is more than what we have known
More than a laugh and a blue-eyed look
And a way of thinking and being
The dust is of a people touched
The dust is of the soil and water
Of the place traveled and food eaten
Of a life giving and taking what passes
A democratic dust lies in peace
Dust of New York and California
Dust of India and even of the place
Where the last breath of life came
In darkness – in sleep.

We shall all pass this way and our dust will be of these places
And of the people we have known
And of the lives we have led
The time will pass and what we did – even our tombs and dust
Will be blown away by the winds – the winds of change

Sleep softly child, sleep softly – And Adieu…


- Charles Lindsay Griffen, Jr. PCV