Evensong

The day is over and still so heavy on the mind

In flew glowing, smiling mother, butterfly in yellow

To join the frowning cactus crowd

Finding flowers even there to flutter round

I thought, isn't mother grand? The way she flies and flies

Into the sting of the cold and the prick of the barbed wire

Isn't mother grand to gladly fly and swiftly fly

Into the sting of the cold and the prick of the barbed wire

The day is over and still goes passing through the mind:

In came glowing, smiling mother, sure and kind

To rouse us, to give ourselves out and to cry

Birth to warm intentions, worthless otherwise

Oh, the lives that brush against us, pass us by and by

The friends who may or may not come if we would first invite

Oh, to open doors, to always gladly fly and fly

Into the sting of the cold and the prick of the barded wire