Poems (Jordan)/The "To Come"

by Rebecca Queen Jordan

THE "TO COME"

  We cannot abide
As thus, close to each other's side,
  But this I know,
If thou, my friend, art first to go,
All the glad days of the "have been"
I'll live but to live o'er again!

  We cannot converse,
As now, for aye; the Now doth nurse
  The great "To be"
And all it holds for thee and me;
Oh, let us now, in view of all,
Speak no word we would then recall!

  For there will come
A time when smiling lips are dumb,
  Whose,—thine or mine?
Which heart its lonely lot repine;—
Whose eyes no int'rest shall betray,
Whether the other go, or stay?

  The last fond word
Shall be—by which?—in anguish heard;
  The clinging clasp,
"Ere loosed for aye from which one's grasp?
Ah, which of us "Farewell!" must say,
From on the Earth-side, some dark day?

  Which shall it be
To journey on alone? If we
  Could surely know
Would we still act the same as now?
Oh, would it any diff'rence make
To thee, if Death me first should take?

  Well, one by one
Tired hands must lay life's duties down,
  And feet, all bruised
With climbing, have their sandals loosed;—
Yes, one shall go, and one must stay
'Mid the reminders, day by day!

  Time flyeth fast,
Some day will be the very last
  Together spent,
And then one heart with anguish rent
Shall look, so hopelessly, through tears
Upon the coming vacant years!

  And one will trace
Each line of the familiar face,—
  So cold and still!
And one must patient wait, until
Death's hand again, shall lift the bars,
And we shall meet beyond the stars!