a dirge

she stands in the prairie an edifice of reality
empty and shorn of her glory
a symbolic gesture of the soul sequestered
bygone relevance of the storied

now silent to her history lost in modernity
sands of time bemoan in effigy
a signpost proclaims the new world's disdain
unchecked cloying entropy

like an elder recluse ignored by pertinent youth
devalued and shorn of machination
her beauty now questioned by bountiful obsession
with self-reliant actualization

she stands now solemn a shrine for the fallen
lonely and absently devolved
devoid of purpose sacrificed on the alter of avarice
primordial resolution absolved

© 2006 BY W. GARY FORRESTER