(An Easter Ballad)

“Come OUT, come OUT, wherEVer you are,”

The frisking children chorused.

When playtime ends,

All hidden friends

Are bound to come out of the forest.

“Come OUT, come OUT, wherEVer you are,”

The tidy children chorused,

In the short proud street

Where our lives are neat

On the nearer side of the forest.

“Come OUT, come OUT, wherEVer you are,”

The puzzled children chorused.

When fun is over,

Why doesn’t the rover

Come whooping out of the forest?

“Come OUT, come OUT, wherEVer you are,”

The lonely children chorused;

For the greater the dark

The less the lark

When you wait till dusk near a forest.

“Come OUT, come OUT, wherEVer you are,”

The shivering children chorused.

(With some wonderful toy

Can’t we hold back the boy

Who is westering into the forest?)

“Come OUT, come OUT, wherEVer you are,”

We aging children chorused

While beyond our shout

A boy comes out

On the farther side of the forest.