A GOOD-BYE
“Good-bye, my friend!”
He takes her hand—
The pressures blend:
They understand
But vaguely why, with drooping eye,
Each moans—“Good-bye!—Good-bye!”
“Dear friend, good-bye!”
O she could smile
If she might cry
A little while!—
She says, “I ought to smile—but I—
Forgive me—There!—Good-bye!”
“‘Good-bye?’ Ah, no:
I hate,” says he,
“These ‘good-byes’ so!”
“And I,” says she,
“Detest them so—why, I should die
Were this a real ‘good-bye!’”