Old Earth

When you and I are old, the earth
Will be that older still,
The leaf will be a withered piece
The frost will snap the rill,
The snow in sheets of crystal gray
Will mesmerize the eye
And everything, from brake to bray
Will be of silver dye.
The trees will be an aged head
Of hoary limbs and twigs,
The pasture and the meadow:
A humped and wrinkled wig,
The wind will move with slower gait
Then ever he'd before
And all the clouds in summer stay
A black and slated floor.
The birds will flutter through the air
With bent and powdered frill:
When you and I are old, the earth
Will be that older still.