Finality (Jackson)
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FINALITY
The farm was lonely, set so far
Back from the town;
If neighbors came, he'd rant and rave
If they sat down.
And when they went he forced upon
Her hateful thought,
And nagged; made ugly use of words
With meaning fraught.
Her back was bent with work she'd done
Beyond her strength;
For he planned more than she could do
In each day's length.
The days seemed all alike to her
Until, one day,
She found a blue bird, maimed in wing,
So bright and gay
She loved it, cared for it, and soon
The bird loved her;
When he came, she would hide it and
It would not stir.
One noon he came and caught her with
:The bird in play;
He killed it right before her in
A fearful way.
A neighbor came, to ask about
A plough, that night;
He never could forget that strange
And awful sight.
She'd used the kitchen knife on him
And he was dead;
She sat, a bruised and battered thing
From feet to head,
And hummed a little song, or spoke
A tender word,
And tried to make blue feathers stay
Upon a bird!
Winifred Virginia Jackson
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1930.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1959, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 65 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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