The Catholic Bulletin

A HANDFUL OF DUST.

(Written for The Catholic Bulletin by Dr. James Henderson.)

A handful of dust on the ocean was cast.
It rolled into fathomless spaces and vast,
Was tost on the wave and was merged in the sea
To nourish some flower on a far distant lea;
To gather and hearten some pestilent weed
And scatter in time a malevolent seed.

Oh, handful of dust from the elements swaged,
The chaos of spheres—a cosmos light paged,
To cling to the sceptre, to fall on the sword
And gather as rust 'fore the breath of the Lord:

A handful of dust, in a day far and gone,
By a hand that is dust now, the billows cast on,
And the grasses have withered long years on the grave
And the blood of his line has been gallant and brave;
The youth and the aged have stooped o'er to pray"

A handful of dust, ah, where is it today?
A handful of dust from the litter and grime
Of streets where have mingled both virtue and crime:
Of fields that are swept by the breath of the wind.
Of valleys that sleep rugged mountains behind:
The vomit of geysers, the thunder and blast
Of burning volcanoes for aeons held fast,
And, the breath of the tempest, the sweep of the sea
Are brought from the ages and chained within me.

And I joy and I pray, and I dance or I sing
Till the day when my spirit shall soar and on wing;
Then crumbling earth shall receive—oh it must.
The thing I had dwelt in—a handful of dust!