Love Poem: The Widow
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Written by: Sandison Jumbo

The Widow

The widow What about the first rays of each dawn, Does recall her from the land of slumber? What does announce that the night’s gone To release her from each night’s cumber? Owning no cockerels to herald the morning, With shrill. anticipatory predawn crows Is there then, a scent that’s adorning Of dawn, only discernible by her nose? Awake, she never does lumber about, As one in the daze of insufficient sleep, Her chores, efficiently she does carry out; Her progeny, she must slave for their keep. Her aching palms, withered and abrasive, Are blistered in testament to years of toil, But never a deterrent into being dismissive Of a menial job, even the carter of night soil. She’d sworn to never use as the egress- Her body, from a poverty that’s truly abject; The goatish rich feeding off her distress And making her the village gossip’s subject Her children’s dreams she’d rather marry; Never by tradition, her late husband’s brother Forsaken by most, her suffering may tarry, But this shameful custom, she’d help smother!