I went to the dances at Chandlerville, <br />And played snap-out at Winchester. <br />One time we changed partners, <br />Driving home in the midnight of middle June, <br />And then I found Davis. <br />We were married and lived together for seventy years, <br />Enjoying, working, raising the twelve children, <br />Eight of whom we lost <br />Ere I had reached the age of sixty. <br />I spun, I wove, I kept the house, I nursed the sick, <br />I made the garden, and for holiday <br />Rambled over the fields where sang the larks, <br />And by Spoon River gathering many a shell, <br />And many a flower and medicinal weed-- <br />Shouting to the wooded hills, singing to the green valleys. <br />At ninety-six I had lived enough, that is all, <br />And passed to a sweet repose. <br />What is this I hear of sorrow and weariness, <br />Anger, discontent and drooping hopes? <br />Degenerate sons and daughters, <br />Life is too strong for you-- <br />It takes life to love Life.<br /><br />Edgar Lee Masters<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/lucinda-matlock/
