Portrait

Whey can you not know peace! Why must you ever
Churn in turbulent insidious mood
That ferments in this teeming winged brood
Of subtle words that stir up war? Never
Do you come but our routine is fraught
With neighborhood and family strife;
Our clear relations muddle: brother, sister, wife;
Some Greek-born sin, some strange unholy thought,
Unsaid but felt, some wild obsession, quelled
We hoped, by living sternly, shows its head,
A monster, making life a pregnant bed
For obscure vice mankind long since has felled.

You'll not have peace! And when you go away
We lose a strange discordant holiday.

^__Margaret E. Haughawout.

Sheep's Clothing
Margaret E. Haughawout
Page 53
(Pittsburg, Kansas: __. 1929)