Cross Roads

SHADOWS

     You come to me at twilight, when the others,
        Are laughing in the fullness of their joy;
     When glad-eyed women folk, when wives and mothers,
        Are welcoming some other bronze-cheeked boy.
     You come to me, all silent, in the gloaming,
        A shadow form, with curly shadow hair—
     And, dear, I somehow feel that you are roaming
        Between two shadow worlds—the Here and There.

     They ask me, do those others, why I wander
        Down dewy lanes, alone, at eventide—
     They do not know my heart's a shadow—yonder...
        They do not know that part of me has died.
     They do not know that your dear presence stands
     Just out of reach with misty, wide-flung hands!