Woman's Voice

by Unknown

So she watched her babe’s eyes open, and the little limbs grow straight,

And she taught him all the lore she’d learned, and what to love and hate;

And she trained the little body, and she led the little soul,

Till another woman took him to lead further toward the goal;

Then the mother smiled in anguish, though she laughed at age and cares,

For the freedom that she wanted was a longer one than theirs.

When the work of life grew harder and men bowed beneath the yoke,

Of needs too great to master, and lusts too deep to choke,

She worked and slaved and tended, she wrestled with the dearth;

She harnessed up herself to beasts, to till the barren earth;