Then and Now

By Eiland Murray

The old hall groans with cluttered might,

A riotous, crowded delight.

Bronze gleams beside porcelain's sheen,

A thousand whispered tales between.

Now starkness reigns, a lonely chair,

A single vase still breathes the air.

Light falls like grace on polished wood,

Each object weighed and understood.

One grants a quiet, pensive gaze,

The other, memory's tangled maze.

Both hold a truth, though differently spun,

A harvest gathered, or undone.

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Murray Eiland is a poet and archaeologist living in the Bay Area of California.