Bells of Town ~ Pearl Madsen Olsen

There is a bell,

the high one over the schoolhouse

droning long and lazily

to tell the clocks in town. 

It puts each day to bed at nine o'clock

and often charges air with brisk alarm,

calling anxious men to fight a fire

or seek a straying child -- lost

and sometimes fallen into water.

I am awed by a bell in the steeple

over the meeting-house, and await

it's deep, religious voice

reminding me to worship.

Keeping time like metronomes --

thick and heavy as necks they fall from

are the bell tones drawing near

as cows amble home from pasture,

and fretful trebles of swinging pendants

tinkle higher when bleating ewes

search for wandering lambs.

Bells, bells of my town,

You sound the silence left by time.

Pearl Madsen Olsen