Will I?

Will I see next winter
Next winter, or this spring?
Shall I walk amongst the flowers
That sheltered summer brings?
Will I watch the harvest,
Or e’en the wheat turn gold?
Or will I fade and melt away
As winter’s snow grows old?

Will I wake tomorrow
To find another day?
Will I rise and go and do
The ordinary way?
Shall I see the sun again
After a normal night?
Or will the dark embrace too close
And take me from all sight?

I want to see this winter
Turn once again to spring,
To walk amongst the fields of flowers
As summer’s coming in.
I want to wake tomorrow
To an ordinary day
But I grow old and surely know
I soon must go away.

E.M. Swift-Hook