Emily Pauline Johnson

In Grey Days

    Measures of oil for others,
        Oil and red wine,
    Lips laugh and drink, but never
        Are the lips mine.

    Worlds at the feet of others,
        Power gods have known,
    Hearts for the favoured round me
        Mine beats, alone.

    Fame offering to others
        Chaplets of bays,
    I with no crown of laurels,
        Only grey days.

    Sweet human love for others,
        Deep as the sea,
    God-sent unto my neighbour -
        But not to me.

    Sometime I'll wrest from others
        More than all this,
    I shall demand from Heaven
        Far sweeter bliss.

    What profit then to others,
        Laughter and wine?
    I'll have what most they covet -
        Death, will be mine.