Three - A poem by Annie F. Burbank

Three.

I.
There dwelt in one wide city people three:
A man whose lands,^__an emerald sea,^__
Ran east and west. Who, clothed in purple fine,
From jeweled goblets drank his amber wine.
II.
A woman like the morning, wondrous fair,
With rays of 'prisoned sunshine in her hair;
Whose life ran like a river, strong and sweet,
While hearts, like autumn leaves, dropped at her
feet.
III.
A drunkard with blear eyes and bloated face,
Who on God's earth had no sweet resting-place;
Who ate with swine, in filthy gutters slept,
Forgot his own, and neither smiled nor wept.
IV.
When, over the wide city ran a breath
Of fell disease, and these three slept in death,
Fear-stricken, awed, the world forgot its pride,-
Wealth, beauty, beggary, lay side by side.
V.
And Mother Nature took them to her breast,
Wrapped her strong arms about them in their
rest,^__
Her children all! Then o'er each lowly bed
Her coverlet of grass and daisies spread.

^__Annie F. Burbank..

Kansas in Literature
Part 1. Poetry
Edited by W. M. Davidson
(Topeka: Crane & Co. 1900)
Page 57-58