Get Ready to Weep

One day I saw a ghost-child

With eyes of blue

She roamed around the garden wild

As little children do

     She moved along the flower bed

     Caressing every tree

     Following the path that led

     To the billowing sea

She was scarcely eight years old

With seawead in her hair

Her clothes were  of ocean mold

And tattered with wear

    She walked along the sandy beach

Where the garden's end began  

And the fingers of the ocean reach

Toward the bordering land

     Then she walked into the sea 

    When she went so long ago 

     Before she went, she waved at me--

     Long and slow

 She walked unto the ocean deep

Where the other children are

Where they sleep their eternal sleeo

Beyond the bar 

     She disappeared into the foam

    That lashed into the foam--

    That lashed the shore so wild

    She had  seen what had been her home

    When she was my child      (1956)