T. S. Eliot

This poem appears in the Fall 2013 issue of Modern Age. To subscribe now, go here.

Time passed like leaves falling in late November,
            Last leaves slowly adrift past lace curtains;
A lean house, like a club where he’s the member,
            Aware of chilled time beyond lace curtains.

Closed albums from days of cocktails near the Cape,
            New England memories like pale dried sap;
Silence like fog filled the bare Sunday streetscape,
            While the ruby-eyed cat purred on his lap.

Daniel J. Heisey, OSB, is a Benedictine monk of Saint Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe, Pennsylvania, where he is known as Brother Bruno. A graduate of the University of Cambridge, he teaches church history at Saint Vincent Seminary.