Paths

I shall tread, another year

Ways I walked with Grief

Past the dry, ungarnered ear

And the brittle leaf



I shall stand, a year apart

Wondering, and shy

Thinking, "Here she broke her heart

Here she pled to die."



I shall hear the pheasants call

And the raucous geese

Down these ways, another Fall

I shall walk with Peace



But the pretty path I trod

Hand-in-hand with Love

Underfoot, the nascent sod

Brave young boughs above



And the stripes of ribbon grass

By the curling way

I shall never dare to pass

To my dying day