Edith Nesbit

As It Is

      IF you and I
      Had wings to fly—
   Great wings like seagulls’ wings—
      How would we soar
      Above the roar
   Of loud unneeded things!

      We two would rise
      Through changing skies
   To blue unclouded space,
      And undismayed
      And unafraid
   Meet the sun face to face.

      But wings we know not;
      The feathers grow not
   To carry us so high;
      And low in the gloom
      Of a little room
   We weep and say good-bye.