A poem by Thomas Thornburg from Munseetown

This winter sun again is centered
Above Gillespie Towers where
Each dawn discovers lights declaring
Early risers there.
Infirm and ill and some demented,
Why do they rise in winter, staring
When each in her cell might bask instead
In summer dreams beneath the snows
Of memory, secure and somnolent?
The weak light rallies, and I know:
A car awaits her who is newly dead.
I must take leave of this, prepare my readings
(Poems of death) for students, show
Them the journey we must go.