The Cardinal Flower
Wrapped in his crimson gown and cowl,
Beside her slender form he stood;
There by the grassy brook they strayed,
And sun-rise thrush and moonlight owl
Knew that she listened while he wooed.
So blue her eyes, so golden fell
The sunny hair about her face;
She stepped with delicate sweet pride
Along the grasses, close beside
The brook’s cool lily-shadowed place.
“It was a shame that they should go
Thus side by side, at last to part,”
Earth said: “Mine all this color now,
Her soft blue eyes, gold hair and brow,
The red blood in his ardent heart.”
Men say, “They died.” They passed away;
I am not sure what trail they took.
But where the grasses bend and sway,
Red Cardinal flower burns its way—
Forget-me-nots grow in the brook.