Julie Byrne
Emeralds
Of all the needs, there are none
There are none which are imagined
Of all the fires that ever burned
It was all that I did learn

Have you forgotten what we were like then?
When the day came fat with an apple in its mouth
And it is no use to worry about time
We know the length that we have lived

All the pasture and the ice and water
And the high roads that I have come to know
I would not want to be faster or greener than now
You were, you were the best, the best of all my days