The Collected Poems of Dora Sigerson Shorter/Wishes

by Dora Sigerson Shorter

WISHES

I wish we could live as the flowers live,
To breathe and to bloom in the summer and sun;
To dumber and sway in the heart of the night,
And to die when our glory had done.

I wish we could love as the bees love,
To rest or to roam without sorrow or sigh;
With laughter, when, after the wooer had won.
Love flew with a whispered goodbye.

I wish we could die as the birds die,
To fly and to fall when our beauty was best:
No trammels of time on the years of our face;
And to leave but an empty nest.