HOME...

‘ We're going home!’ I heard two lovers say,

They kissed their friends and bade them bright good-byes;

I hid the deadly hunger in my eyes,

And, lest I might have killed them, turned away.

Ah, love! we too once gambolled home as they,

Home from the town with such fair merchandise,—

Wine and great grapes — the happy lover buys:

A little cosy feast to crown the day.

Yes! we had once a heaven we called a home

Its empty rooms still haunt me like thine eyes,

When the last sunset softly faded there;

Each day I tread each empty haunted room,

And now and then a little baby cries,

Or laughs a lovely laughter worse to bear.