St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1913-04-05
In MemOrium to II. A. Breaux
From a Comrade OF His Youth.

" 1IS IG
What Cosmic Thing wrapt in weir'
gloom.
The tares she reaps;
The seed she soWs!
Thus on-thro' eternity!
For noble seed within that mind
Now forever laid to rest:
A noble mind, a spirit kind,
Was his unborn, noble bequest,
But Life-what must thou step in ant
do?
Destiny, O show thy hand!
Tis black and smirched from era.
thro'
With gripped indomitable wand
That bendeth all beneath its power
Plueketh from life its very flower
So why should sad form of man
Be born with ennobling dover:
Seed soWn beneath a ban,-
The fair minds inner beauteous
flower
To be rotted by its holding form,-
Its petals off streWn by the storm
OF the passions that enmesh
That poor Ave thing called flesh!
II man is born with spirit dover,
Fair seed within his flesh insown,-
Oh why should then his will thus
cover
And be thus by Flesh down thrown?
Is this divine Omniscient power,-
Or issues from a chaos blown?
Doth mans downfall,
His sweetest all,
Thrown out to the wild winds tossed
Demonstrate Divine Power
That knoweth of each sucking
flower,
Seeth failing sparrow" lost?
Then why not save poor man?
When one that lies like Raymond
Breaux
With beauteous flower on his brow
Its petals cast in that weird throe
Called life that struggle wan,
That ends but in Deaths clasp of
snoW,-
Looking at him as he lies,
With noble powers that he had
That spoke from kind and soulful
eyes,
0 Raymond, my good comrade,-
Gazing pom thee thus, oh al
One gazing, bordering, yet still
cling
To divine faith,- a Power Wise,-
That seeth sparrow as it flies
And drops upon the wing!
Then-why vast thou not saved?
And the path of life is paved
With just such questions that up
spring!
Thou promised much in thy glad
YOUTH
Glad dreams once to me revealed:
And now, Comrade, thou art gone,-
0 Raymond, my good contradict
Laid in that final couch all lone,-
Thy bright dreams with thee en-
sealed
Thy dream flowers withered bloom
Blasted with thy shattered form!
Is it thus that life is made?
Is it aye the truth?
If man was given love in vain
Why was he given it?
Senses of flesh which are a bane?
If his soul was meant to sit
Upon senses deep ingrown,
Ger coming thro' Infinity-
Where is its power shown
Its Omniscient quality?
O Destiny-show thy black face
nadlhto with tnC SiAS VI GySicS
years.
Cant not the Hypocrisy?
Of the spirits rule of flesh
Show thy Golfers filled with tears!
Thou'r Omniscient-dost enmesh
All sad struggling life that wears
The brands that mark thy Demon
Face!
Cant thou in Ecclesiest's tone,
Treading thy weird on,
While to thy Golfers thou dost cling
30 Grave, where is thy victory?
Death, where is thy sting?"
None-none! They have nonel
The bitterness is in life gone!
The Face of Death doth backward
fling
The smile of an eternal calm,-
The smile, at length, of victory
Ger the passions Wrecking storm!
He sleepth now in peace at last
His ban of flesh forever cast!
Farewell Comrade, deep and gray
Is the page of Life today!
For upon thy minds fair book
Never more will time e'er look
To write for us its beauteous page!
The leaf is turned for aye away!
O Friend, thou has paid the wage!
Handed in thy golden tithes-
Paid in for rotten baubles gay!
This is life! The spirit writhes-
But pays in, pays in, day by day!
And thou, Raymond, o good COM
rade,-
Thy life reckoned, weighed,
Is handed in ere thy day
Had seen writ cen half its leaf!
o Destiny-thou murderous Thief;
Thy Golfers filled with souls sad )
toll! /
While human lives like golden sands
Slip in each day to swell the strands
For thy invincible weird tread
Thou Ghoul, with thy black path OF
dead!
Just yester cen hard Fate did lend
Tothat path-mine own goodfriend!
Raymond, my good comrade!
Farewell, good Comrade, gone to
rest!
W. bow to Infinitude!
Tho thy fair book is closed for aye,
Thy life culled of its sweet bloom:
Thy hands that knew but generous