A Woman's Work- #PoetryFriday


Thank you Elizabeth Steinglass for hosting Poetry Friday this week!

 I'm still rather new to this community, although there are so many familiar friends here! For now, I'm just sharing poems that I want to keep closer...poems that I've loved, but live in the middle of a book, somewhere on my shelf, out of sight and out of mind. My hope is by participating here on Fridays, I will have a collection of poetry at my fingertips, as well as learn new poems from all of you!

 Today's poem is a favorite of mine because I am the WORST at "woman's work." 

 A Woman's Work

 By Dorothy Nimmo

 Will you forgive me that I did not run
to welcome you as you came in the door?
Forgive I did not sew your buttons on
and left a mess strewn on the kitchen floor?
A woman's work is never done
and there is more.

 The things I did I should have left undone
the things I lost that I could not restore;
Will you forgive I wasn't any fun?
Will you forgive I couldn't give you more?
A woman's work is never done
and there is more.

 I never finished what I had begun,
I could not keep the promises I swore,
so we fought battles neither of us won
and I said, "Sorry!" and you banged the door.
A woman's work is never done 
and there is more.

 But in the empty space now you are gone
I find the time I didn't have before.
I lock the house and walk out to the sun
where the sea beats upon a wider shore
and woman's work is never done,
not any more. 

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