The lines below her mouth went down.
Embittered for years at her failed marriage
at her living in her parents’ house
without a home of her own,
her 3 children fatherless
though He lived blocks away.
At work she did the men’s difficult tasks
(for a great deal less pay)
better than They might have done —
there she found a satisfaction.
After caring for her dying parents
proud of her children now grown up,
her husband back after 40 years
he too needing her care,
it all seemed somehow too late.
Where were the simple pleasures she had dreamed.
The lines below her mouth went down.