Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Song of the Sinner" (1926)
Just a bit of ashes
Grey, grey ashes--spent--
God! how fierce the fires burned
Down to this content.
Just a bit of ashes,
Not a single spark
Lives in this residuum
Crumbling cold and dark.
Just a bit of ashes--
To the judgment day,
I go with my memories--
Pray, sweet vrigin, pray!
Published in Palms, October 1926
Also published in An Autumn Love Cycle, 1928