Cosmic Ciphers

—By Leland S. Copeland.

In deep of night when I awoke
 There came a frank and lonely thought
That some day we should die, and all
 We valued should for us be naught.

But can the Universes mourn
 When transient lives like ours are done,
And we no longer walk a mote
 Day-lighted by a tiny sun?

For flies that fall by human stroke
 Are greater loss to Mother Earth
Than dying men to That within
 The Vast where all the stars had birth.