At Salute.

At Salute.
528.5

The kind stands by and baies his head
Why is it so?
I was a clod (he would have said)
An hour ago.
An hour ago, ere I was dead.
I would have barod,
And he, the king, with needless tread
Onward had fared.
And now, this change-what made it, say-
What stopped him on his joound way?
Is it because has come to me
Death’s strange and sudden dignity?
Is this the reason he is mute
And stands before me at salute?
-Susie M. Best.