Poems (Odom)/My Husband's Birthday

MY HUSBAND'S BIRTHDAY.

The years are casting shadows,
All across our quiet way,
And their dust is thickly gathered
Upon both our hearts to-day.
Their silver feet are treading,
Through your whiskers and your hair;
I can see their snowy signals,
Telling me they have been there.

Another year, my darling,
You have garnered in to-day
Ripe for the eternal harvest,
As we tread our homeward way.
And the gleams of golden sunlight,
That amid the shadows rest,
Fall aslant above us now, dear,
For our sun is in the west.

We have walked life's path together,
Through many circling years,
Bearing one another's burdens,
Soothing one another's fears.
Through the light and through the darkness
That was cast upon our way—
Watched the shadows turn to sunshine,
And the sunshine turn to gray.

We have borne the heated burden
Of our life's warm summer noon,
And the deeper glow of twilight
Will be gathered o'er us soon.
And the night of death in blackness,
"Like a mantle over all,"
Shrouding earthly joys and sorrows
In one great immortal pall.

When the Angel shall arouse us
From our last unbroken sleep,
And shall call the silent dwellers
From the earth and from the deep,
May we stand again together
In that golden-tinted land,
Always close beside each other,
Walking ever hand in hand.