The Shaker's Cask

In my time of dying May peace take your hands, And the steel that they harbored, Take earth by my side. With some help from a son And the rose at your chest Every measure of man that you've made Will soon be replaced. Lay me down on the open ice Where the Eskimeaux played. Lay me down eighty feet in the sand Where the young pharoah's old gold was stolen. Lay me down, Lay me down, Lay me down as you please. But take your peace as my eyesight has ceased And holy grails in old pails I can't seek. Now this poem and this flask Where the good word was cast, And the catacombs that established our homes, And the dirt on the old Shaker's cask: They too will pass And our pride will pass And the coasts that divided your lies will pass. And the rivers pass with our brothers' grasps Like the moons that have orbited us have collapsed, And the ghosts at the sands of the damned hourglass, And the many shores left, still, To follow their path.