CHIPMUNK

Little chipmunk, do you know

All you mean to me?—

She and I and Long Ago,

And you there in the tree;

With that nut between your paws,

Half-way to your twittering jaws,

Jaunty with your stripèd coat,

Puffing out your furry throat,

Eyes like some big polished seed,

Plumed tail curved like half a lyre...

We pretended not to heed —

You, as though you would inquire

“Can I trust them?”... then a jerk,

And you'd skipped three branches higher,

Jaws again at work;

Like a little clock-work elf,

With all the forest to itself.

She was very fair to see,

She was all the world to me,

She has gone whole worlds away;

Yet it seems as though to-day,

Chipmunk, I can hear her say;

“Get that chipmunk, dear, for me ——”

Chipmunk, you can never know

All she was to me.

That's all — it was long ago.