Like a rooster trying to crow in August

Hatched in April, we’ll say.

And you went about wrapped up in silence

With eyes aflame, and I heard little rumors

Of what they were doing to you, and how

They wronged you—and we were poor—so poor!

And I could not understand why you failed,

And why if you did good things for the people

The people did not sustain you.

And why you loved another woman than Aunt Susan,