Messages from My Soul

A Story About A Promise Kept

A STORY ABOUT A PROMISE KEPT

I remember, one day, when we graved our names

   Upon the bark of a lonesome tree--

   A tree that stood atop a fallow lea;

   When, 'gainst the vanishing light of sunset

   You held my hand and spoke to me.

"Promise, promise now, tell me, tell me now,

   That even if time these names of ours would wear

   Your heart will keep them always there.

   That, even if the world would fade away

   Alive this love your soul would bear."

I nodded with a smile, as the moments passed

   Counting away the final seconds of an ending day;

And, unmindful of the coming dusk

   We bade adieu to the dying ray. 

I remember afterwards, that happy eve

   When we ran around the lonesome tree

   That stood atop a fallow lea;

   When, while spellbound by the billion stars

   Watched we turn the skies to a sable sea:

"Promise, promise now, tell me, tell me now,

   That even if this charming lustrous night

   Would grow too old to shed its light,

   That you'd keep this love, this love of ours

   In your heart to shimmer bright."

I nodded with a smile, as we gazed at the moon,

   That spangled with pearls the raven skies;

We watched our words of love--like fleeting lights

   Up the welkin wide to rise.

I remember once, when we sang to the wind

   That caressed a lonesome tree--

   A tree that stood atop a fallow lea;

   When we suffused with odes to love 

   The air that joined us in our glee.

"Promise, promise now, tell me, tell me now,

   That even if the morrows far shall will

   That the winds of youth must come to still,

   You'd keep our love and let its song

   The gloom of the saddest night to fill.

I have faithfully kept that promise

   Despite many an aimless year.

But while the parade of life behind me leaves

   As a fragile flow'r I've kept it here.

And now, in the dark unperturbed, I came

   Beside the tomb by the lonesome tree--

   A tree that stood atop a fallow lea;

   I wreathed your memories with tears sincere

   Till too dark's the world to see.

"Promise, promise now, tell me, tell me now

   That even if the world's too weak to stand

   Gladly you shall hold my hand;

   That you'd take me in your arms as Death

   Bears my soul to the other land."

I remembered your voice so sweet and mellow

   In the sound of my sobs as I, yearning, wept.

But they who came to my longing succor

   Are but the tears of a promise kept.