Red Geraniums

Life did not bring me silken gowns,
Nor jewels for my hair,
Nor signs of gabled foreign towns
In distant countries fair;
But I can glimpse, beyond my pane, a green and friendly hill
And red geraniums aflame upon my windowsill.

The brambled cares of everyday,
The tiny humdrum things,
May bind my feet when they would stray;
But still my heart has wings
While red geraniums are bloomed against my window glass
And low above my green -sweet hill the gypsy wind-clouds pass.

And if my dreamings ne'er come true,
The brightest and the best
But leave me lone any journey through,
I'll set my heart at rest
And thank God for home-sweet things, a green and friendly hill
And red geraniums aflame upon my windowsill.

~ Martha Haskell Clarke