Soul Food

"RED GERANIUMS"
 
Life did not bring me silken gowns,
 Nor jewels for my hair,
 Nor signs of gabled foreign towns
 In distant countries fair,
 But I can glimpse, beyond my pane, 
a green and friendly hill,
 And red geraniums aflame upon my window sill.
 
The brambled cares of every day, 
 The tiny humdrum things,
 May bind my feet when they would stray,
 But still, my heart has wings
 While red geraniums are bloomed against my window glass,
 And low above my green-sweet hill, 
 the gypsy wind-clouds pass.
 
And if my dreamings ne'er come true,
 The brightest and the best,
 But leave me lone my journey through,
 I'll set my heart at rest,
 And thank God for home-sweet things, 
 a green and friendly hill,
 And red geraniums aflame upon my window sill.
 
by Martha Haskell Clark