Star of Gold

By Eva Willes Wangsgaard

I.

My neighbor’s window frames a golden star
Where last year hung its counterpart in blue,
A sharp reminder of one gone too far
To walk again the friendly street he knew.
Long weeks ago his mother hung it there
And still the dusk of grief is in her eyes
And loneliness impossible to share
Or mitigate by kneeling where he lies.
She neither dwells upon him nor evades
The mention of his name when others ask;
Though memory wounds each day with deeper blades,
She goes with normal mien from task to task.
At what a cost her courage has been won!
I’ve seen her hang her pillow in the sun.

II.

This star is many sons in one to her:
A gurgling baby showing his first tooth,
A tear-stained youngster pleading for a cur,
A proud boy scout, a gangling, earnest youth.
She knew his untried strength, his zest for life,
Ideals he thought worth fighting to uphold,
The girl he loved and hoped to make his wife–
And sharp cessation in this star of gold.
To me, it is a symbol of the loss
Of myriads of men who went beyond
The lonely foxhole to the small white cross
In Libyan sands or brushed by tropic frond.
Oh, modern wise men, kneel in reverence
Before this star and offer recompense!

III.

The roaring wings that tore the world apart
And made a mockery of miles and weather
Can fly the lanes of peace and make a start
Toward landing fields where all men walk together
As neighbors should. Then, though he lies in sands
Long burned by suns, or under shaggy palm
Or chestnut tree or where the linden stands,
His timeless sleeping shall be sound and calm.
There was another star, another cross,
Another wound that grew a rose as red;
They hold the answer to my neighbor’s loss.
This star can lead us as the other led
The shepherd’s feet. Though high the goal and far,
Can we deny the beckoning of a star?

(1946)