Page:The Muse in Arms, Osborn (ed), 1917.djvu/290

248 It was good to pay the men on mother's Birthday,

And to give them but an earnest of their due,

And to see them playing Footer in the evening,

Just to keep their bodies manly, strong, and true.

It was good to have a rest on mother's Birthday,

In the evening when the daytime's work was done.

It was good to sit and look across to mother,

And to contemplate the rest when it is won.

It was good to go to sleep on mother's Birthday,

And to let the tired body take its ease,

And to dream of dreamy, long-forgotten spring days

When a little body lay on mother's knees.

Only every man has not a mother's Birthday,

No one ever had a mother just like mine!

It was good to be alive on mother's Birthday,

Son of Mary—Mother, gentle and divine.