Come prop me on the pillow, nurse,
So I can see the sun;
Supposin' it should make me worse,
My time is nearly done,
An' one day more or one day less
It takes or gives to me
I'll never notice, nurse, I guess,
In all eternity.

A fellah never knows how well
He likes that world out there,
That world in spite of all its hell,
Its work an' pain an' care,
Until he lays here white an' weak
Like me upon a cot,
Just startin' out some world to seek
That he has most forgot.

How green the trees look! an' the grass—
Yet they are no more green
Than was the trees I used to pass,
I used to pass unseen.
How blue the sky looks! an' how deep,
How far away it seems!—
It seems a sort of sea of sleep
Beside a shore of dreams.

An' life seems such a little while
When you go out to sea—
Why, I remember ev'ry smile
That ever come to me!
You smoothed the pillow where I lay
A little while ago,
An' it was just the other day
My mother did it so.

My mother! Girl, I went away
An' never said good-by.
I never watched her hair turn gray,
I did not see her—die.
An' just to think, she laid like me,
When all her work was done,
An' looked acrost that sleepy sea,
A-wishin' for her son,

A-longin' for me—an' I know
She's longin' for me still:
Beyond the sea where I must go
She's standin' on a hill,
She's standin' as she used to stand,
When down the path I'd roam,
To take her baby by the hand
Again to lead him home.

An' God Himself, with all His laws,
Won't stop me passin' through—
I know He'll let me in, because
My mother ast Him to.
I wish I hadn't been so rough,
With drink an' sin an' oath—
An' yet her soul is white enough,
I know, to save us both.