The Song of Bird and Turtle

A bird once flitted light and free
Across the sky and through the trees.
She knew a turtle who labored slow
Across the earth, so rough and low.

The bird, her heart was set on a star
That twinkled and glimmered above so far;
The turtle's heart was set on the bird
Who sometimes low to the earth had whirled.

The turtle called, 'Come down to me!'
The bird's heart sang, 'I would be free!'
'And circle higher till I climb so far,'
'That I can kiss my love the star.'

The turtle watched; the turtle wept:
Her beautiful plumage around her swept;
She dwindled small against the light,
A fading star that slipped from sight.

But stars are high and stars are cold:
At length her beating wings grew old;
She settled like expiring breath:
To earth she settled cold as death.

With feeble flaps she tried to rise
But had no strength to reach the skies.
And where does she rest? The turtle knows
And on her grave he laid a rose.