Chipmunk

Little chipmunk, do you know     All you mean to me? -     She and I and Long Ago,     And you there in the tree;     With that nut between your paws,     Half-way to your twittering jaws,     Jaunty with your stripd coat,     Puffing out your furry throat,     Eyes like some big polished seed,     Plumed tail curved like half a lyre . . .     We pretended not to heed -     You, as though you would inquire     "Can I trust them?" . . . then a jerk,     And you'd skipped three branches higher,     Jaws again at work;     Like a little clock-work elf,     With all the forest to itself.     She was very fair to see,     She was all the world to me,     She has gone whole worlds away;     Yet it seems as though to-day,     Chipmunk, I can hear her say;     "Get that chipmunk, dear, for me - - "     Chipmunk, you can never know     All she was to me.     That's all - it was long ago.