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.