Time

1986

Time was I held him in my trembling arms
A bundle sweet, so warm, so soft and light,
And counted o;er his many wondrous charms,
His mystic, old-world eyes, his hair so bright,

And all those Heaven-sent joys welled to my heart,
I reckoned not, nor feared the day’s long dread;
I gavo no thought to time when we must part–
Just showered kisses on his baby head

then when I lost him, swiftly as the night,
A changeling came and offered lose to me;
So stenlthily he crept-his stop was light–
I did not hear my baby go, nor see

So tearfully, I laid his garments by
And half forgot the pain of losing him,
For there was work for me, no time to sigh
Or battle with a Fate both kind and grim

But he, too, went his way, and in his stead
There came a bright-faced boy, with eyes of blues,
A pair of dirty hands, a tousled head,
And, miracle! He called me “Mother,”too

Oh, Mother-love! That years and lingers where
The God of homes made bright some space a while
And fingers wistfully a lock of hair,
Or calls to mind her laddie;s sunny smile

Of such sad pleasures is the life we spend,
Nor dream to doubt the wisdom of its Plan;
But gather reckless courage toward the end
And bravely call the Child we lost a Man