Poems (Odom)/To My Little Namesake, May Dee Collier

by Mary Hunt McCaleb Odom

TO MY LITTLE NAMESAKE, MAY DEE COLLIER.

Is it but my foolish fancy That you have your father's eyes,That the presence of his spirit In their azure beauty lies?Little one, lift up your lashes- Lift them up, and let me seeIf the light is in their glances That was once so dear to me.

I can see your mother's beauty Playing in your dimples now,And her golden hair is rippling Softly from your baby brow.The same bright waves of color In your cheeks I see arise,But—look up, you precious baby!— Yes, you have your father's eyes,

With their sparkle and expression And their soft impassioned hue,Like the shining sun-kissed heaven, Tender, beautiful, and blue.And I clasp you to my bosom With a sudden rush of tears,While a dream I thought forgotten Rises from the sea of years,—

Rises up and stands before me Like the faces that we seeCut in cold and pallid marble, Wrought in death's white imagery.And the pale hand of remembrance Lifts the pall that lies aboveThe cold and lifeless ashes Of a dead and buried love,—

Lifts it up and lays it sadly On the broken, ruined shrine,Once the sacrificial altar Of his youthful heart and mine.Softly through my spirit trembles Such a low, impassioned strain, Bringing all the old-time sweetness And its music back again;Throbbing, swelling into rapture, Like some cherub-chanted chime,Sweeping into outer darkness All the later colder time.And I stand again beside him, In life's fresh unfolded hours,Where love's pearly, plumaged angel Threw his shadow on the flowers.

Though the stars, like flashing jewels, Hung upon the summer skies,Yet I saw nor cared for nothing Save the love-light in his eyes.But a silent, cruel coldness Crept like death our hearts between,Chilling into icy nothingness The bliss that might have been.

God keep you always, darling, For the two names that you wear;May His blessings ever brighten With the sunlight in your hair. Keep your life from every shadow, And your soul from sin as freeAs the pure and spotless flower That you are to-night, May Dee.