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A Promise
The window blazed with dazzling light; The thunder rolled across the roof;
The sharp rain stabbed the trembling walls; The old dog cowered beneath the steps.
The woman clenched her hands, as if
She clutched the fury of the storm,
And shut her eyes with each new flash,
And trembled 'till the thunder came.
The old man gazed out at the night
And saw the p,olden fields flare up
With every fork that split the sky.
His grey head sank onto his breast,
He knew his wife was thinking, too,
110n such a night he went away."
But morning brought another day,
And tho' the night still haunted them With memories of another night,
The sun shone sparkling on the grass Despite some clouds still hanging low, As if there never could have been
That door held wide to sheets of rain. A boy, so young, white-lipped with rage Had stepped into a storm-lashed world. Behind him closed more doors than one.
She dropped her broom; ran to the door. A knock had come that she knew well.
She held it wide to morning light--
And there he stood--her son come home.
The boy she'd taught to say his prayers, "God bless each one and make me good." The lad who'd romped with his first pup, That had been shot when it killed sheep. The son she'd bandaged, scolded, loved-- The boy grown up into a man,
With thoughts they could not understand. Now here he was--tall, bronzed and brave, Come home at last to them. He smiled. Behind his head a rainbow glowed.
Rosemary Ruppert. XIIA
First in Senior Poetry Competition
THE TWENTY THIRD PSALM
Miss Clark is my teacher; I shall no~ want for work.
She disturbs my laziness: she leads me in the paths of geometry, for she
is the teacher.
She maketh me expose mine ignorance before the class: she assigneth hard lessons.
She prepareth a figure on the board from a proposition: she anointeth mine head with words; her knowledge pas seth understand in~~:.
Yea, though I walk to the board with the hope of success~ I fear some evil, for her text book, it bothers me.
Surely p~anes ana lines snall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in Geometry 11 forever.