Shelagh

There was a time when I could take my ease
and read a book beneath the trees
and see my pipe-smoke curling high
up to a peaceful summer sky.

Thus many a blissful evening have I spent
with simple pleasures well content,
then sleep, sweet peace, the whole night long
to make my life one perfect song.

Though I remember how I blessed the day
when first our daughter came to stay,
gone is the rapture of those rich delights
of carefree days, of quiet nights.

Where once we ran, now we must creep
in case our daughter wakes from sleep
and with her energetic squealing
bring plaster down from the ceiling.