Copper Sun (Cullen)/Lines to Our Elders

Copper Sun
by Countee Cullen
Lines to Our Elders
4122704Copper Sun — Lines to Our EldersCountee Cullen

Lines to Our Elders

(To Melanie)

YOU too listless to examineIf in pestilence or famineDeath lurk least, a hungry gaminGnawing on you like a beaverOn a root, while you trifleTime away nodding in the sun,Careless how the shadows crawlSurely up your crumbling wall,Heedless of the Thief’s footfall,Death’s whose nimble fingers rifleYour heartbeats one by weary one,—Here’s the difference in our dying:You go dawdling, we go flying.Here’s a thought flung out to plague you:Ours the pleasure if we’d lieverBurn completely with the feverThan go ambling with the ague.