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Once When We Bought Valentines
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Surely all the envelopes sealed with hearts of red
(Were they there? Were they ours?) would be gone instead!
Hearts and doves, wreaths and loves wonderful to see!
Could He mean the shiny words, "I Can Love But Thee?"
Would he look across the desks when next morning came,
He who sent (If He sent) all those hearts aflame?
Would He know the straggling hand, all in print and bent
Up and down on the folds of the one you sent?
······
We re too old to buy them now—all the loves and laces,
We can only watch above other little faces.
Glowing at the prettiest, laughing at the plain,
Still the eager faces crowd by the lighted pane.
Once we too saw wonderlights glinting on the snow,
Once we too bought valentines—too long, too long ago!
(Were they there? Were they ours?) would be gone instead!
Hearts and doves, wreaths and loves wonderful to see!
Could He mean the shiny words, "I Can Love But Thee?"
Would he look across the desks when next morning came,
He who sent (If He sent) all those hearts aflame?
Would He know the straggling hand, all in print and bent
Up and down on the folds of the one you sent?
······
We re too old to buy them now—all the loves and laces,
We can only watch above other little faces.
Glowing at the prettiest, laughing at the plain,
Still the eager faces crowd by the lighted pane.
Once we too saw wonderlights glinting on the snow,
Once we too bought valentines—too long, too long ago!
