May you rest easy in grace and love, 2021-2021.

Dedicated to the Lerner Scaffolding.

Your memory is my most cherished.

Forever and Always.

O scaffold! my scaffold! Your job is nearly done,

The crew unweather’d every brick, the façade we sought is won,

The end is near, the tools I hear, a crew is deconstructing,

And eager eyes scan the sturdy walls of a hall fit for instructing;

                        But O heart! heart! heart!

                        O the masonic stones of red,

                        Where on the road my scaffold lies,

                        Fallen cold and dead.

O scaffold! my scaffold! rise up and hear the siren;

Awaken from your slumber, you beloved assembly iron,

For you the students mourn and weep—for you the world is crowding,

For you they yearn in misery with forlorn faces shrouding;

                        Here scaffold! dear scaffold!

                        A roof once overhead!

                        It is some dream that on the path,

                        You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My scaffold does not answer, its bars are cold and still,

My scaffold does not hear my cry, it has no pulse or will.

Your life was long and lovely for Lerner’s healed and done,

‘Twas a noble time of dry sublime but the heavens are newly won!

                        Exult O stars and ring O skies!

                        But I with rueful glee,

                        Walk the lane my scaffold saved,

                        The ether bursting free.

Lerner Scaffolding via Author