An Altered Tread

To heal is to grow older

And leave a special scar--

To square the aching shoulder

And still the pounding heart . . .

But always with an altered tread

We leave the path of gloom--

And with an ever-graying head

We bend to travel home.

And never will the grasses part

Beneath the foot of time

To spring exactly back the chart

That led these steps of mine . . .

For, after me, another comes

Who walks a different way

And with her destined burden hums

Her own sweet tune of grace.

--CJW--