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The Ladies Tree by Walter Emerson
When I look out the window pane each day at three to stare Or rest my elbows on the sill each morn to breathe the air Sometimes, more now than then, in solitude and thought I see Delightful sights up on a hill where sits the Ladies Tree I love to lean and look beyond her shades to pillowed clouds Out over plains and flowers blowing breezily about And slightly to one side and down the hill by banks of grass Is Frogs Spring blue where children often sing, hold hands, and dance Wistfully turning back inside my house to clean and strain Over some things collected through my years of joy and pain With tears I realize the things more treasured than the rest Are friendships that were forged from youth while playing on that crest Then came a day I still recall with joy and leaping heart When at my sill I saw those friends, like me, now aged depart They left their things, they moved with grace, I saw that from my sill They looked to make their way across that plain and on that hill I lean and think that heaven’s call may not be all that long And how it would be nice to meet those friends once more for song My apron off, I have a change in plans today at three Today’s the day I’ll leave my sill and run to the Ladies Tree