How many times have we been interrupted <br />Just as I was about to make up a story for you! <br />One time it was because we suddenly saw a firefly <br />Lighting his green lantern among the boughs of a fir-tree. <br />Marvellous! Marvellous! He is making for himself <br />A little tent of light in the darkness! <br />And one time it was because we saw a lilac lightning flash <br />Run wrinkling into the blue top of the mountain, — <br />We heard boulders of thunder rolling down upon us <br />And the plat-plat of drops on the window, <br />And we ran to watch the rain <br />Charging in wavering clouds across the long grass of the field! <br />Or at other times it was because we saw a star <br />Slipping easily out of the sky and falling, far off, <br />Among pine-dark hills; <br />Or because we found a crimson eft <br />Darting in the cold grass! <br />These things interrupted us and left us wondering; <br />And the stories, whatever they might have been, <br />Were never told. <br />A fairy, binding a daisy down and laughing? <br />A golden-haired princess caught in a cobweb? <br />A love-story of long ago? <br />Some day, just as we are beginning again, <br />Just as we blow the first sweet note, <br />Death itself will interrupt us.<br /><br />Conrad Potter Aiken<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/improvisations-light-and-snow-12/
