These Are My JOTtings, Part #2

Homage to Lord Byron: "Earthly Days"

The days of earthly arduous trek
may seem a thankless, weary chore,
but daily when we stick the neck
out like the souls in days of yore,
we find the task is at our beck,
obeying efforts, that we pour.

Each wayworn, tiresome, toiling trudge
may bode as last, the good days gone,
but when its o'er just One will judge,
in Eden's resurrected Dawn.
Detractors may the good name smudge,
but Grace will look and stretch and yawn.

How innocent we reach this loam,
then grown we seek the days gone by.
Those child-hope days our very home,
escape from the present, hidden cry.
The dash of life to us a tome,
a wisp of breath in the bye and bye.

Written after the pattern
of Lord Byron's poem,
"She Walks in Beauty"
by Jay O'Toole
on December 18th, 2019