Requiem

Grady McMurtry

6 December 1941

We leave this earth, this earth that is our pride,

This is our worth, by death of worlds we died,

Our hopes, our loves, we leave, our heritage

Of faith, to you who come across the stellar bridge.

Yours is the flame, the flame of truth and light,

Above the shambles of our hopeless fight,

Grieve not that we and all our kin are gone;

We lived by grace which has been long withdrawn.

You are an alien race that will abide

Within the halls that we have been denied.

Hold fast the fire; this is our requiem,

Our peace be on you now and we with them;

God grant that you may know what this betide.

Yours is the slow task that we have defied;

Accept our hope although we cannot guide,

For who may stand when suns and worlds collide?

[11]