Moonlight in Old St Augustine

By pitted walls of ancient rose
Poinsettias’gow the night-noon shows.
And purple petals sifting fall
Upon the faded crumbling wall.
...As if, with vivid youthful glows
To still enliven time-worn rose!

Alladin-built, Alhambra-towered Inn
(Granada’s wealth transferred by Jinn!)
Rears domes as for a Khan arose.
...Apart—from dazzling garish grounds
Rich jeweled round in elfish glows;
—As shadows flee; shrink wiser mounds.

Where shrouded San Sebastian seems
A mystic flow of Long-gone dreams,
Rustling tongues;—and far deep-voiced roar
Speak, here, a strangely foreign lore.
And, here, on walls of ancient rose
The soft transforming moonlight flows.

A wiser glow; that stirs,—yet calm:
An older speech sighs through the palms.
Below,—by crumbling faded wall,
Old spirits stir, and hush, and call:
Gaunt gnarled oaks in dreaming breeze
Cast living reminiscent frieze.

O’er dungeoned dour coquina maze
Shadows tread accustomed ways,
And moated tow’rs yield whispered moan:
Faint rasping clank,—as steel on stone—
The pond’rous thud of oaken bale:
...Despairing, deep-entombed wail.

The flood-tide flows above white bars
Where shadows move of ghostly spars.
...Up from the channel’s reedy growth
Comes mellow-echoed Latin oath.
...And halyards rattle—far away…
...Where day-light shows a crumbled quay.

O’er Anastasia’s shifting dunes
THe ever-searching sea-wind croons;
...Unwilling tool of olden knaves
Whom, hopeful still, seek treasure graves.
Responsive sedge yield soughing tunes:
...The miser cedars clutch doubloons.

The bouganinvilla petals fall
On dim-remembered trysting wall,
Their purple sows
The pitted walls of ancient rose.
...Faintly falls through scented haze
Undying echoes
Of dead forgotten roundelays…...