<h2><SPAN name="page101"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>THE UNWED MOTHER TO THE WIFE</h2>
<p class="poetry">I <span class="smcap">had</span> been almost
happy for an hour,<br/>
Lost to the world that knew me in the park<br/>
Among strange faces; while my little girl<br/>
Leaped with the squirrels, chirruped with the birds<br/>
And with the sunlight glowed. She was so dear,<br/>
So beautiful, so sweet; and for the time<br/>
The rose of love, shorn of its thorn of shame,<br/>
Bloomed in my heart. Then suddenly you passed.<br/>
I sat alone upon the public bench;<br/>
You, with your lawful husband, rode in state;<br/>
And when your eyes fell on me and my child,<br/>
They were not eyes, but daggers, poison tipped.</p>
<p class="poetry">God! how good women slaughter with a look!<br/>
And, like cold steel, your glance cut through my heart,<br/>
<SPAN name="page102"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>Struck
every petal from the rose of love<br/>
And left the ragged stalk alive with thorns.</p>
<p class="poetry">My little one came running to my side<br/>
And called me Mother. It was like a blow<br/>
Between the eyes; and made me sick with pain.<br/>
And then it seemed as if each bird and breeze<br/>
Took up the word, and changed its syllables<br/>
From Mother into Magdalene; and cried<br/>
My shame to all the world.</p>
<p class="poetry"> It was your
eyes<br/>
Which did all this. But listen now to me<br/>
(Not you alone, but all the barren wives<br/>
Who, like you, flaunt their virtue in the face<br/>
Of fallen women): I do chance to know<br/>
The crimes you think are hidden from all men<br/>
(Save one who took your gold and sold his skill<br/>
And jeopardized his name for your base ends).</p>
<p class="poetry">I know how you have sunk your soul in sense<br/>
Like any wanton; and refused to bear<br/>
The harvest of your pleasure-planted seed;<br/>
I know how you have crushed the tender bud<br/>
Which held a soul; how you have blighted it;<br/>
<SPAN name="page103"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>And made
the holy miracle of birth<br/>
A wicked travesty of God’s design;<br/>
Yea, many buds, which might be blossoms now<br/>
And beautify your selfish, arid life,<br/>
Have been destroyed, because you chose to keep<br/>
The aimless freedom, and the purposeless,<br/>
Self-seeking liberty of childless wives.</p>
<p class="poetry">I was an untaught girl. By nature led,<br/>
By love and passion blinded, I became<br/>
An unwed mother. You, an honoured wife,<br/>
Refuse the crown of motherhood, defy<br/>
The laws of nature, and fling baby souls<br/>
Back in the face of God. And yet you dare<br/>
Call me a sinner, and yourself a saint;<br/>
And all the world smiles on you, and its doors<br/>
Swing wide at your approach.<br/>
I stand outside.</p>
<p class="poetry">Surely there must be higher courts than
earth,<br/>
Where you and I will some day meet and be<br/>
Weighed by a larger justice.</p>
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