WORKING her toothless gums till her sharp chin Could almost reach and touch her sharper nose, These are the words my old acquaintance said: "I have four children, all alive and well; My eldest girl was seventy years in March, And though when she was born her body was Covered all over with black hair, and long, Which when I saw at first made me cry out, 'Take it away, it is a monkey -- ugh!' Yet she's as smooth and fair as any, now. And I, who sit for hours in this green space That has seven currents of good air, and pray At night to Jesus and His Mother, live In hopes to reach my ninetieth year in June. But ere it pleases God to take my soul, I'll sell my fine false teeth, which cost five pounds, Preserved in water now for twenty years, For well I know those girls will fight for them As soon as I am near my death; before My skin's too cold to feel the feet of flies. God bless you and good day -- I wish you well. For me, I cannot relish food, or sleep, Till God sees fit to hold the Kaiser fast, Stabbed, shot, or hanged -- and his black soul Sent into hell, to bubble, burn and squeal; Think of the price of fish -- and look at bacon!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ROMANCE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON ON A TUFT OF GRASS by EMMA LAZARUS THE PITY OF IT by THOMAS HARDY THE DARK HILLS by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON TO - (1) by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY SIX TOWN ECLOGUES: SATURDAY; THE SMALL-POX by MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU |