Page:Love Poems and Others.djvu/54

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VIOLETS

Sister, tha knows while we was on the planks
Aside o’ th’ grave, while th’ coffin wor lyin’ yet
On th’ yaller clay, an’ th’ white flowers top of it
Tryin’ to keep off ’n him a bit o’ th’ wet,

An’ parson makin’ haste, an’ a’ the black
Huddlin’ close together a cause o’ th’ rain,
Did t’ ’appen ter notice a bit of a lass away back
By a head-stun, sobbin’ an’ sobbin’ again?

  —How should I be lookin’ round
   An’ me standin’ on the plank
  Beside the open ground,
   Where our Ted ’ud soon be sank?

  Yi, an’ ’im that young,
   Snapped sudden out of all
  His wickedness, among
   Pals worse n’r ony name as you could call.

Let be that; there’s some o’ th’ bad as we
Like better nor all your good, an’ ’e was one.
—An’ cos I liked him best, yi, bett’r nor thee,
I canna bide to think where he is gone.

Ah know tha liked ’im bett’r nor me. But let
Me tell thee about this lass. When you had gone
Ah stopped behind on t’ pad i’ th’ drippin wet
An’ watched what ’er ’ad on.

xlii.