Dew - A Moony Tale.

"Look at that dew", said the Strayed Baby.

"That's not dew at all", said the Toad, who had been listening uninvited.

"I could tell you a story about that," said the Starling.

"Don't," said the Little Man, looking out from his poppy-blossom.

But the Starling began: -

One day our Jesus made the moon, And through the curtained sky it burst, And laughed aloud to hear the tune The stars sang - as they did at first.

Then Time unwound his golden thread; And every night across the sky, The moon went spinning overhead, And joyed to see the stars go by.

But when a thousand years had sped, One night, beyond the Northern Bar, The moon's face blushed a sudden red, He saw and loved a virgin star.

His heart throbbed. "Jesus," said the moon, "I've spread my light a thousand years Upon your Earth, and now one boon I ask -- That when my love-star nears

"My path, together we may fly, And hand in hand, through endless days, Wander together down the sky, And work they works, and sing they praise."

God sat as still as stone: he saw Beyond the bounds of Time and Space. "Moon, thou art of the changeless law, Get thee to thine appointed place."

Back went the moon, but now dead white Like Death his face, and he creeps Across the dark sky every night Alone increasingly he weeps.

And through the long and changeless year, He walks alone across the Blue, Gemming the grass on Earth with tears, Which men and women call the dew.

BC Archives, MS-2570 Box 1 File 6 MIST, Henry Masterman Ruhleben magazine, Prisoners’ Pie, 1916