U For Union

If time and nature serve us both alike,

I shall be dead for years, when you are dying;

Remember then how much I loved the birds:

That should you hear a gentle bird-voice crying

'Sweet! Sweet!' You'll know at once whose lover waits.

I shall be there in all good time to show

The way that leads to a new life and home-

Ere Death can freeze one finger-tip or toe.

But we'll have years together yet, I trust,

In this green world: how many sparrows came

To breakfast here this morning, with the frost

As plump as snow on window-sill and frame?