Back from a Two-years’ Sentence
by
Back from a two-years’ sentence!
And though it had been ten,
You think, I were scarred no deeper
In the eyes of my fellow-men.
“My fellow-men–?” Sounds like a satire,
You think– and I so allow,
Here in my home since childhood,
Yet more than a stranger now!
Pardon–! Not wholly a stranger–,
For I have a wife and child:
That woman has wept for two long years,
And yet last night she smiled–!
Smiled, as I leapt from the platform
Of the midnight train, and then–
All that I knew was that smile of hers,
And our babe in my arms again!
Back from a two-years’ sentence–
But I’ve thought the whole thing through–,
A hint of it came when the bars swung back
And I looked straight up in the blue
Of the blessed skies with my hat off!
O-ho! I’ve a wife and child:
That woman has wept for two long years,
And yet last night she smiled!