A Shut-In To His Dog

by Orval Lippincott
(Lima, Ohio, USA)

You could have known the scented fields
and tasted wild delights;
And played where all of nature yields
a thousand wondrous sights.

You could have known the singing brooks
and days of quiet rapture;
Filling your heart with hills and nooks
and joys a dog can capture.

There was the freedom of the dell;
the trails were ecstasy-
You gave them up to share my hell
of gray monotony.

Grand paradise you left out there
to guard me and my home;
God grant there'll be a world somewhere
That both of us can roam!

-Orval Burdette Lippincott