I passed within the busy mart
At Lexington to-day.
I heeded not the milling crowds
That swarmed along my way.
I heeded not the market calls,
Nor yet the heat of day.
Were you to ask me what I saw
As past the stalls I trod:
Potatoes, corn or luscious fruit,
Or peas within the pod?
Nay! Nay! I’d say I only saw
A messenger from God.
I wandered with unseeing eyes
And saddened heart the while:
When in the mart’s dim cornered place
I caught a pansy’s smile,
And then my heart was lifted up
Along the homeward mile.
I left the pansy growing there
Within its corner low;
Perchance some other weary soul
May catch its lifting glow.
God put it there to touch my heart
As I went by, I know.
– 1928 –