Page:The Collected Poems of Dora Sigerson Shorter.djvu/247



we could live as the flowers live, To breathe and to bloom in the summer and sun; To dumber and sway in the heart of the night, And to die when our glory had done.

I wish we could love as the bees love, To rest or to roam without sorrow or sigh; With laughter, when, after the wooer had won. Love flew with a whispered goodbye.

I wish we could die as the birds die, To fly and to fall when our beauty was best: No trammels of time on the years of our face; And to leave but an empty nest.