Poems of Madison Cawein Vol. 3 — The Road Home

THE ROAD HOME

Over the hills as the pewee flies, Under the blue of the southern skies;

Over the hills where the red-bird wings, Like a scarlet blossom, or sits and sings;

Under the shadow of rock and tree, Where the warm wind drones with the honeybee;

And the tall wild-carrots around you sway Their lace-like flowers of cloudy gray: By the black-cohosh and its pearl-white plume A-nod in the woodland’s odorous gloom;

By the old rail-fence, in the elder’s shade, That the myriad hosts of the weeds invade: Where the butterfly-weed, like a coal of fire, Blurs orange-red through brush and brier;

Where the pennyroyal and mint smell sweet, And blackberries tangle the humming heat, The old road leads; then crosses the creek, Where the minnow dartles, a silvery streak;

Where the cows wade deep through the blue-eyed grass, And the flickering dragon-flies gleaming pass.

That road is easy, however long, Which wends with beauty as toil with song;

And the road we follow shall lead us straight Past creek and wood to a farm-house gate.

Past hill and hollow, whence scents are blown Of dew-wet clover that scythes have mown;

To a house that stands with porches wide And gray low roof on the green hill-side.

Colonial, stately; ’mid shade and shine Of the locust tree and the southern pine;

With its orchard acres and meadowlands Stretched out before it like welcoming hands.

And gardens, where, in the myrrh-sweet June, Magnolias blossom with many a moon Of fragrance; and, in the feldspar light Of August, roses bloom red and white.

In a woodbine arbor, a perfumed place, A slim girl sits with listening face;

Her bonnet by her, a sunbeam lies On her lovely hair, in her earnest eyes.

Her eyes, as blue as the distant deeps Of the heavens above where the high hawk sleeps;

A book beside her, wherein she read Till she saw _him_ coming, she heard _his_ tread.

Come home at last; come back from the war;

In his eyes a smile, on his brow a scar: To the South come back--who wakes from her dream To the love and the peace of a new regime.

DROUTH