Glory Days - Bai T. Moore

wandered in the moonlit night

to view the glory of the past

The ruins of those pioneer days

were silhouetted against the light

where once stood mansions decked with pride

now ruled by vipers and the bats

are ‘nough to make one stop and sigh

The broken frames can hardly stand

the beating of the constant rain

And on the landscape high above

the ruins of the parish too

can tell the ghostly story plain

beneath the grass stand epitaphs

a remnant of some burial ground

A lordly cricket once in a while

will break the silence with a sound

Or in some distant woods a drum

a native feast in feverish swing

I wonder after all these years

these ancient ruins can rise again

and brighten up a dismal scene?

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Bai T. Moore [Full name Bai Tamia Johnson Moore] (1916 – 1988) Liberia

Source: African Poems Archive