Afterglow/in honor of my brother Kevin M. Carroll (1945-2010)

A poem written by my father when he was 24, and read at the gravesite of my brother, Kevin McDonald Carroll, this past Monday, by my sister Kathleen.

Afterglow

This above all, we know,

This is apparent to men:

After a time we go,-

Not how, nor where, nor when.

Only a moment the lark

Troubles the quiet dawn,

Then soars, and above the park

Wheeling, is gone.

But for a season the rose

Opens in fragrant bloom;

Then, when the summer goes,-

Frost – and doom.

Yet, something there is that stays,

Something is left behind:

A scent in the garden ways,

An echo on the wind.

(Author:George K. Carroll from the Chicago Tribune Line O Type column in 1924)

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