Bobolinks After Sunset

WAIT: I follow! After the wasted day
What hear I ? Bobolinks in twilight gray
Withdrawing immeasurably far away,
Following the sunset. Day has passed me by.

I follow : wait! After the wasted year,
Like fallen rain refalling tear on tear
Of memory, the bobolinks phantom-clear
I hear unseeing. Spring has passed me by.

Oh wait! I follow ! They hold the merry sun
Strange in the twilight, dying one by one.
After the waste of life, I rise, I run,
Catching his skirts. . . . But love has passed me by.

J. Bussell Taylor.