I know a mother the best in the world,
And this dear mother had six happy girls,
This six girls lived to be mothers too,
They are busy all day with the work they do.
Now when I was young and these sisters grown,
It was me who run the errands round home,
At night I helped them dress just so, for they worked all day,
And were going out now to be happy and gay.
And it seemed to me I was so homely and small,
That in no one’s life I fit at all,
And I used to think as I worked for the girls,
Would I ever be able to give my life a whirl?
Time has now made life different, oh yes,
I come and go right along with the rest,
And to our new friends we six look alike,
We girls whose mother thought them just right.
The six daughters this mother had,
Three favored her — three, dark eyes like Dad,
So in life we find an even balance too,
And our life is made even by the good we do.
(April 1, 1930)
Note from the author’s daughter (my grandmother): “And to make everything balance, my mother not only had five sisters, but five children.”
This post is for the Second Annual Brigid in Cyberspace Silent Poetry Reading (see link here).
