Returning Love

Forgive me if I babble like a stream in flood.
But it is the birth of that season that is called spring,
And the green tide is rising within my blood,
And the love that has my heart is taking wing.

In his far country and home all winter long,
The heavy snows have kept him from my door.
But now the air is thick with flakes of song
For the birds have returned, as once before

They were singing when first we two met,
As I gathered water from the flowing stream.
Our eyes locked- and now I must forget
How long we stood locked as though in dream.

And then he came forward, and told his heart
In words that the water's murmuring near obscured.
I listened as though listening were become an art,
While my own heart sang sweeter than any bird.

And we courted all summer and the spring,
Until in autumn we promised at last to marry.
He told me that when the robin comes on wing,
He will come to me; he will not one moment tarry.

I have seen the jays like sapphire shards come flying,
And the orioles and vireos, all the rest.
I stand in the doorway as the sun is westward dying,
And long to see a robin's ruby-ruddy breast.

There is one! He perches upon a pearwood bough,
And tilts his head, his breast flashing bright and strong.
He tilts his head back- oh yes! oh yes! now, now!-
He breaks into the robin's cheery, cheeking, springing song.

I turn, wiping tears away from my eyes,
And freeze as I see a motion upon the road.
I lean forward, straining, but my heart is wise.
It already knows that my love has not been slowed,

And here he comes riding, on the robin's heels.
He looks up at me with love in his eyes burning,
And with no words to describe just what my heart feels,
I run to meet my returning love like spring returning.