One of the things we have learned is this: Tho’ death rides around rough shod, Back of our births and our deaths and our loves Is the all-kind heart of GOD.
His eyes were wide and large and bright As shining drops of dew, In which two violets had drowned Themselves and made them blue.
His lips were O! so soft to kiss His smile was quaint and funny; Couldn’t think of any name To call him only Honey.
No one ever tho’t that I Was his sister Sue. For my eyes were just as black As his eyes were blue.
And my hair was like a crow His so golden sunny. Father ridicules the name But keeps on saying Honey.
Last night, as tho’ with new washed eyes I looked upon a lake. Something within me sharply stirred An understanding ache.
An ardent willow swayed and dipped The cool depths of lagoon. Unstirred miles of grass and dew Lay lonely to the moon.
It seemed I’d never seen a night Or such a scene before. The moonbeams stretched a splintered path From shore to shadowed shore.
I marveled thus, and wondered how In unveiled hours to come, Could such a pulseless thing like death Make one so eager, dumb.
Last night, when I was wearied to my soul, I was slipping out to dreamland very fast. When I tho’t about you, and the things you did, The help you gave, for which I did not ask.
Your unselfishness and kind deeds true, Kept coming up before me like a scroll. I could not count the many things you did, For me, when I was sick, in body and in soul.
My undeserving self grew very, very tired. With all the counting of them, and I slept. But, ’twas just to dream again of all these things, And in my restless sleep, I wept, and wept, and wept.
And when I saw him stamping over My little patch of shrubs and clover, His steel bright gun held shoulder high I scarce could check, a smothered cry.
Because I knew your nest was low So shuddered when I saw him go. A gunshot and I scarce could see You had flown screaming to a tree.
O little bird with troubled breast, A miracle has saved your nest. I’m sorry you were frightened so, You should not build your nest so low.
A mystery puzzled and vexed me, Unsolvable, strange and deep. Perplexed and worn out in spirit It followed me into my sleep. Then with eyes that were heavy with dreaming I drifted from darkness to dawn. For the raindrops scattered my shadows With numbers of broken song.