MY MAN AN’ ME
My man an’ me fer forty year
Have hiked it up the hill,
An’ side by side, an’ bound an’ tied,
As was our youthful will.
He come upon me like a dream
Of all I hoped to be—
An’ so we stood, fer ill er good
Made one, my man an’ me.
It was a rosy way we went
When life was in the dawn;
I heard the birds, I heard the words
A young wife feeds upon.
His arm was ’round about my waist,
He led me tenderly—
’Twas long ago we traveled so
The road, my man an’ me.
Though still we travel side by side,
We travel now apart—
Fer older wives live lonely lives,
An’ hungry is the heart.
’Twas long ago I felt the kiss
In youth he give so free—
Still side by side, but years divide
Us two, my man’ an’ me.
Yet once he held my hand in his:
We knelt beside a cross,
Together knelt, together felt
An’ shared a common loss.
An’ there was four instead of two
(Er so it seemed to be)
Yes, there was four—the babe I bore,
My God, my man an’ me.
The river yon is covered now
With Winter’s ice an’ snow;
Upon its breast no lilies rest
Where lilies used to blow.
But underneath the Winter’s ice
The waters flow as free
As in the Spring we heard ’em sing
Their song, my man an’ me.
So age may sit upon his lips
An’ cool the speech of youth;
An’ yet I know he promised so
To love, an’ spoke the truth.
The Winter days of life may chill
The ways of such as we;
But ’neath the cold the love of old
Still warms my man an’ me.