Compensation
~~
by Nancy Virginia Rhea
~My Grandmother~
~~
The roses withered that I nursed
With tender care and labor,
The lilies drooped, the tulips burst
Their fragrant hearts, for dew athirst;
Not so those of my neighbor.
~~
Her roses flaunted on the breeze,
Their crimson challenge flinging
To bandit bee and butterfly
Or humming bird with bold bright eye,
That summer brings a-winging.
~~
Tho' I had toiled early and late
To match my garden's splendor
With that one growing near my gate;
Its apple tree with luscious freight
And rose hedge shining tender.
~~
My plants lie prone beneath the rush
Of wind and noisy smelling flood;
My neighbor's flowers blow and blush
'Neath gentle rain in sacred hush
Of prayer-time 'neath the sod.
~~
I felt Cain's anger in me rise,
While these two gardens viewing,
I stood with jealous, moody eyes
Bent to the ground where withered lie
My plants--the spot bestrewing.
~~
But suddenly at my feet I chance
To see a daisy lifting
Its green and serrate-fairy lance
And slender, bending knees advance
And flower snows adrifting.
~~
My neighbor generous and sweet
Withholds not of her treasure,
But freely culls her fairest flowers
That fall in opal-tinted showers,
To fill up friendship's measure.
~~
She merits all the flowers that bask
In sunlight bright or hazy,
Then chastened, I go to my task
Of rearing humble plants nor ask
For roses--I've the daisy
~~
 N. V. Rhea
- Published - 1924 -
Copyright N. V. Rhea, 1924
~~
This rose graphic is from my mother's rose
bush that she planted in the 1940's when we
lived on the farm.  When we moved, she gave
a cutting to a friend and when we built our house
in 1980, Mama's friend gave a cutting back to her
and the rose still blooms on in its everlasting beauty.
~~

Back ... Southern Porch

Back ... MeMa's Holiday House ~~
Table of Contents

~~

Music
"A Beautiful Symphony"
(Copyright 1999 by Jan McIntosh
and Elton Smith)
.

.