Children of the Night

The Miracle

     "Dear brother, dearest friend, when I am dead,
     And you shall see no more this face of mine,
     Let nothing but red roses be the sign
     Of the white life I lost for him," she said;
     "No, do not curse him, — pity him instead;
     Forgive him! — forgive me! . . God's anodyne
     For human hate is pity; and the wine
     That makes men wise, forgiveness.  I have read
     Love's message in love's murder, and I die."
     And so they laid her just where she would lie, —
     Under red roses.  Red they bloomed and fell;
     But when flushed autumn and the snows went by,
     And spring came, — lo, from every bud's green shell
     Burst a white blossom.  — Can love reason why?