Paths
By Dorothy Parker
I shall tread, another year,
Ways I walked with Grief,
Past the dry, ungarnered ear
And the brittle leaf.
I shall stand, a year apart,
Wondering, and shy,
Thinking, “Here she broke her heart;
Here she pled to die.”
I shall hear the pheasants call,
And the raucous geese;
Down these ways, another Fall,
I shall walk with Peace.
But the pretty path I trod
Hand-in-hand with Love,—
Underfoot, the nascent sod,
Brave young boughs above,
And the stripes of ribbon grass
By the curling way—
I shall never dare to pass
To my dying day.
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