Mae V. Cowdery, "A Prayer" (1928)
By Mae V. Cowdery
I saw a dark boy
Trudging on the road
(Twas’ a dreary road Blacker than night).
Oft times he'd stumble
And stagger 'neath his burden
But still he kept trudging
Along that dreary road.
I heard a dark boy
Singing as he passed
Oft times he'd laugh
But still a tear
Crept thru his song,
As he kept trudging
Along that weary road .
I saw a long white mist roll down
And cover all the earth
(There wasn't even a shadow
To tell it was night).
And then there came an echo . . . .
. . . . Footsteps of a dark boy
Still climbing on the way.
A song with its tear
And then a prayer
From the lips of a dark boy
Struggling thru the fog.
Oft times I'd hear
The lashing of a whip
And then a voice would cry to heaven
“Lord! . . . Lord!
Have mercy! . . . . mercy!”
And still that bleeding body
Pushed onward thru the fog .
Song . . . . Tears . . . . Blood . . . . Prayer
Throbbing thru the mist.
The mist rolled by
And the sun shone fair,
Fair and golden
On a dark boy . . . . cold and still
High on a bare bleak tree
His face upturned to heaven
His soul upraised in song
“Peace. . . . Peace
Rest in the Lord.”
Oft times in the twilight
I can hear him still singing
As he walks in the heavens,
A song without a tear
A prayer without a plea.
Lord, lift me up to the purple sky
That lays its hand of stars
Tenderly on my bowed head
As I kneel high on this barren hill.
My song holds naught but tears
My prayer is but a plea
Lord take me to the clouds
To sleep . . . to sleep.
Published in The Crisis, September 1928