Remembrance Eight
I weep for her in quiet hours
When the night is dark and deep
And I’m too sad for restful sleep.
Somewhere an ocean wears its shores,
White surf gnawing at the sands,
Where killdeer scramble up the beach
Beyond the ocean’s tidal reach
Beyond the wavelet’s grasping hands.
Sometimes I think my tears make seas
Salty and full of brine on my pillow
And afterward a quiet sorrow
Gives my grief a brief surcease.
Killdeer [rock painting] -- Lynne Gerard
The killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) is a medium-sized plover that takes its name from the sound it makes. "Vociferus" is from the Latin "vox" + "ferre" (cry + to bear). "Charadrius" is a Late Latin word derived from the Greek "kharadrios," a bird found in ravines and river valleys (after "kharadra," ravine). It was a yellowish bird mentioned in the late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible from Hebrew by Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus (St. Jerome) after he was driven from Roma due to allegatons of an improper relationship with an aritocratic widow; by the 13th century it was referred to as the "versio vulgata" (the "version commonly used"); this "Vulagate" translation was proclaimed the official Catholic Bible at the Council of Trent in the 16th century.
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