The Year's End Doldrums: a Sonnet / by Brian Kunde

The Year's End Doldrums: a Sonnet
by Brian Kunde

No hands on clacking keyboards time the hours;
No squeaking book-trucks trundle to and fro;
No rush requests remain to try our powers;
No meetings now impede the labor's flow.
What's happened to the people? Gone, each face;
Departed, each familiar step and voice;
All vanished with the haunters of this place,
They've left, as if as by universal choice.
A paltry handful, only, now remains,
An ember, in the ashes of a fire,
To burn the leavings, and relieve the strains
Of work remaining 'ere they too retire.
The hunt's blown home: the hound's left off the chase.
The hold-outs hold no longer. Gone, each face.

* * * * *

The Year's End Doldrums: a Sonnet

Originally published in
SUL News Notes, Vol. 3, no. 47, Dec. 22, 1994.

1st web edition posted 12/27/1995.
This page last updated 9/20/2013.