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TESTIMONY
Yes. Close beside that double-may. BeholdThe rounded length of newly-fretted mould.
Beneath it, as in calm obedience, lies
One of the loveliest daughters of Surprise.
To know her was to hear the heart engage
To purge itself of what had come by rage
Or prompting such as needs an evil hour
To sicken Conscience with a poisonous flower.
She drew toward her by a holy thread
The shrunken soul, the long-discomfited,
And bent her body hastily to share
The rugged cross a friend was told to bear.
Her village was a sky, and she a sun
That did not set because the day was done.
Never to be forgotten, she is part
Of every household, every stricken heart;
And when a gate shall creak, the hand not seen,
Starved love will watch the doorway that has been
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Those lips and eyes shall bid the voice of Fear
Become a whisper (for, when she was still
A breathing presence of the Heavenly Will,
She gave in heartfuls of the virtue lent
To her by Him, the Star of Testament),
But, radiant in a new discipleship,
Elsewhere she hands a cup for Pain to sip;
Elsewhere, as once with us, she lamps the gloom,
Binds up a grief, and helps a home to bloom.
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