Page:The Collected Poems of Dora Sigerson Shorter.djvu/255

236 The sky is loud with the storm; not a bird dare span From here to the mist; beasts are silent; yet for a man, For a soul springing naked to meet its judge, a night That were as a brother to this poor spirit's long flight,

But he had chosen, they tell me, a dusk so fair One almost thought there were not such another—there. The air was full of the perfume of pines, and the sweet Sleepy chirp of birds, long the lush soft grass at his feet.

They say there was dancing too in a house close by, That they heard the shot just thinking wild birds must die. They supped and laughed, went singing the long night through, And they danced unknowing the dance of death with you.

What did you hear when you opened the doors of death? Was it the sob of a thrush, or a slow sweet breath Of the perfumed air that blew through the doors with you, That you fought so hard to regain the world you knew?

Or was it a woman's cry that, shrieking into the gloom. Like a hand that closed on your soul, clutching it from its doom? Was it a mother's call, or the touch of a baby's kiss, That followed your desperate soul down the black abyss?

What did you see—as you stood on the other side— A strange shy soul amongst souls, did you seek to hide From the ghosts that were, who judged you upon your way, Reckoned your sins against theirs for the judgment day?