The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest / The writings of philosophers, poets, novelists, social reformers, and others who have voiced the struggle against social injustice; selected from twenty-five languages; covering a period of five thousand years

by Unknown

The Flower Factory

By Florence Wilkinson Evans

(Contemporary American poetess)

Lizabetta, Marianina, Fiametta, Teresina,

They are winding stems of roses, one by one, one by one,

Little children who have never learned to play;

Teresina softly crying that her fingers ache to-day;

Tiny Fiametta nodding, when the twilight slips in, gray.

High above the clattering street, ambulance and fire-gong beat,

They sit, curling crimson petals, one by one, one by one.