how's one to know? i'd meet you where the spirit meets the bones in a faith-forgotten land in from the snow your touch brought forth an incandescent glow tarnished but so grand.

• i felt a funeral, in my brain - 1861
• because i could not stop for dead - 1863
• “hope” is the thing with feathers - 1861
• success is counted sweet - 1859
• before i got my eyes put out - 1862
• i taste a liquor never brewed - 1861
• i heard a fly buzz - when i died - 1862
• my life had stood a loaded gun - 1863
• i measure every grief i meet - 1862
• i years had been from home - 1862
• a bird came down the walk - 1891 publication date
• i'm nobody! who are you? - 1891 publication date
• forbidden fruit a flavor has - 1896 publication date

how's one to know? i'd live and die for moments that we stole on begged and borrowed time...

• one sister i have in our house: this poem was a gift for sue on her 28th birthday on december 19, 1858
• sue - forevermore!_
  • the poem