Poems (Kennedy)/The Knitters
THE KNITTERS
THEY sit in circles or they draw apart,Each following the dictates of her heart For comradeship or solitude;And in the yarn that's blue or drab or grayThe shining needles flash the livelong day Knitting, knitting, Knitting soldier things.
They are the women whom you left behind,O soldier lads, the women brave and kind Whose thoughts spin with the somber yarnAnd race the wind for many a changing mileTo catch, in memory, your goodbye smile— Knitting, knitting, Knitting soldier things.
And, oh, the hopes that bead the thread with gold,And, oh, the tears as old as time is old That gather slow and fall unseen!For, soldier lads, their yearning hearts are whereYou fight in France, their every breath a prayer— Knitting, knitting, Knitting soldier things.