Poetry I Like: A WIdow's Lullaby at Winter Quarters, 1846

A WIdow's Lullaby at Winter Quarters, 1846 by Edna S. Browne in Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Thomas X. Smith Camp 2005-2006

Sleep, my little one--
Sleep while Mother dreams
Of your comely smile
And your small hands cupping my heart;
Of my completeness, holding you;
The happy burden of your trust,
My pride in your unfolding;
The wonders wished for you
Since our first touch.

Even here--
Here in the wind-whipped place,
This savage wilderness,
You have been my courage
And my star.

Sleep, my little one--
Sleep in your narrowbed
Under your coverlet of prairie sod
And stones gently piled . . .
Sleep, while Mother dreams
And weeps--
Walking the long, lonely miles ahead.