At Sunrise

They pushed him straight against the wall;
The firing squad dropped in a row,
And why he raised upon his toes,
Those men shall never know.
He wore a smile across his face
As he stood trimly there,
The guns all aiming at his heart,
The sun upon his hair.
For he remembered in a flash
Those days now past recall,
When his proud mother took his height
Against the bedroom wall.

ROSA ZAGNONI MARINONI.