Poems (Brown)/Life's Changes

by Carrie L. Brown

LIFE'S CHANGES. 

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It was a balmy day in June,
 And the lovely birds were singing,
And the very air was humming notes
 That village bells were ringing.

Forth I wandered to the willow,
 Sat me down upon the green,
Watched the sunshine gladly dancing
 Overhead, with gladsome beam.

I had been for years a wanderer,
 Roaming far in distant lands;
And my weary form was bending;
 Time on me had laid his hands.

All at once I heard a prattling
 Of some little voices sweet,
And my eyes with light were beaming—
 I could hear my heartstrings beat.

Nearer came that laughing band,
 Bounding forth in merry glee
But soon they spied my aged form,
 And curious looks they bent on me.

Eagerly I scanned the group,
 To see if one was there
Whose agile form I once had loved,
 And praised her dark brown hair.

But their faces all were strange,
 And I turned away to weep;
While the sunbeams sank to rest,
 And all Nature fell asleep.

Youth I wandered to the homestead,
 Stood beside the moss-grown well;
But the strange despair that filled me
 Words like these can never tell.

Gone were parents, brothers, sisters;
 I of all was left alone;
And a sound from moving tree-tops
 Seemed to echo back—Alone.

Sick at heart I wandered sadly
 To the graveyard cold and white,
And my eyes with tears were filling;
 On my heart there seemed a blight.

And I called aloud to Silence,
 "Tell me, tell me, where are they
That are absent from the hearth-stone,
 That are absent from their play?

"Answer, Silence! thou, O mortal,
 Tell thy answer unto me."
And they murmured sadly, strangely,
 "Mounds in the graveyard tell it to thee."

Alas! alas! 'twas but too true,—
 They were sleeping in the grave;
Now the willow and the daisy
 Gently o'er their loved heads wave.

And I bowed my head in sorrow,
 As my steps I homeward bent;
For life's dark changes come to all;
 Our earthly days are only lent.