And the patter and trip of the little bare feet

And the one piercing cry on the stair!

I put by the half-written poem,

While the pen, idly trailed in my hand,

Writes on, “Had I words to complete it,

Who’d read it, or who’d understand?”

But the little bare feet on the stairway,

And the faint, smothered laugh in the hall,

And the eerie-low lisp on the silence,

Cry up to me over all.