Jessie Fauset, "Song for a Lost Comrade (To O.B.J.)" (1922)
And the sky is as blue as the sky may be;
And the Past is past and the Dead are dead,
And Life laughs in front of us fair and free!
So it's, Ho Friends, a toast!
Let us drink high together,
Pledging, Life, Love and Laughter, in the gay, gold weather!
True, alas, there is One that is gone from our throng,
A Comrade to all and a good Friend was she;
And clear came her laughter and sweet rang her song—
But now she lies hushed by the bent birch tree.
She'd be first, Friends to cry:
Let us drink high together,
Pledging, Life, Love and Laughter, in the gay, gold weather!
Ah she raised Life's cup and drank of it, too,
And Pain, like Joy, found a smile in her eye;
At all times most tender; to all trusts most true,
She had learned how to live, so she knew how to die.
Nay, no tears, Friends. A Toast:
Let us drink deep together,
Pledging, Life, Love and Laughter, in the gay, gold weather!
Published in The Crisis, November 1922