to ring the chime

[fledgist]

 no need for echoes where the silence heaps

up in dark corners waiting for new night

to lower herself and let the breathy might

that we call summer with its sudden leaps

of devastating beauty stay our sleeps

from each astonishment that seems so right

just when it happens then we turn that slight

degree of justice into one that weeps

we are not wrong to ask just what the time

must measure out for each unwanted child

who comes upon the wall and does pause

to beg for mercy nor to ring the chime

of those who think the tenor is too mild

but will uphold the harshest of our laws