For Mary Helen, Mother's Child

As the Trembling Leaf

And I await as the trembling leaf

Anticipates the rain, the lovely ferns,

Ancients of life on whom she lavished love,

A sign, an augury for which my being yearns

That I am well, – not thee, but my long soul

Stretching beyond the windows of my cage,

Not thee, in whom the Seraphim rejoice,

Surrounding thee with heavenly entourage,

Where pain is not nor any lagging thought,

"What might have been?" All is and is to be,

We cannot wrest the future from the past.

Together awhile we strode an ecstasy

Defined by golden trees, the lean of bluffs,

Wayside blooms sparkling in the sun

And forests where the emerald mosses grew.

All this we shared and more shall share as one.

Still, today, the impress of thy feet

Is cherished in remembrance by the grass

And every calyx greets me with thy smile.

The winds approach and whisper as they pass

Thy name to be revered in all the earth

As thy return in some supernal birth.