Poems (Chitwood)/The Brothers

by Mary Louisa Chitwood

For works with similar titles, see The Brothers.

THE BROTHERS.

They parted coldly, parted foes,
 With anger flashing from their eyes—
One sought a home 'mid northern snows,
 And one where rich magnolias rise.

They parted coldly, who had slept
 On one soft pillow, side by side;
They crushed the love each heart had kept,
 And cast the treasures far and wide.

Yet often in the twilight still,
 A thousand memories would arise;
Their childhood home, beside the hill,
 Floating in beauty by their eyes.

And each would sec his brother's face,
 And each would feel the lost one dear;
Yet were the hands too proud to trace
 The words each brother pined to hear.

And thus they lived, and thus they died;
 Each longed the lost place to regain;
Each standing on the walls of pride,
 Afraid to push them down again.

And thus they died, who loved so well,
 And each believed the other foe—
One slept where southern roses fell
 And one beneath a mound of snow.