Donald Justice

Eternity resembles
One long Sunday afternoon.
No traffic passes; the cigar smoke
Curls in a blue cocoon.
Children, have you nothing
    for our cold sakes?
No tea? No little tea cakes?
Sometimes now the rains disturb
Even our remote suburb.
There’s a dampness underground.
The dead don’t get around
    Much anymore.

— from “Nostalgia and Complaint of the Grandparents”