IF you like a brother here, <br />Tell him so; <br />If you hold his friendship dear, <br />Let him know; <br />All the roses that you spread <br />On his bier when he is dead <br />Are not worth one kind word said <br />Years ago. <br /> <br />You can help a brother now <br />If you will <br />Smooth the furrows from his brow; <br />You can kill <br />The despair that's in his heart <br />With a word, and ease the smart. <br />So why stand you now apart <br />Keeping still? <br /> <br />You can help a brother when <br />He is here; <br />He would hold your praises then <br />Very dear. <br />But absurdly still you stay <br />And withhold what you could say <br />That would cheer him on his way <br />For his bier. <br /> <br />What, I wonder, if the dead <br />Saw and heard <br />What is done and what is said <br />Afterward, <br />Would they utter in reply? <br />Would they smile and ask us why, <br />When the time to help was nigh, <br />No one stirred? <br /> <br />'Keep your roses for the living,' <br />They would say, <br />'Waste no time in praises giving <br />Us today; <br />Strew some living brother's way so, <br />If you like another, say so, <br />For the thing that now you praise so <br />Is but clay.'<br /><br />Edgar Albert Guest<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/for-the-living/
