Anna's Memory

Her mum wept aloud on her birth bed she still does remember that day At the birth of June her youngest sister now in her mid forties and turning gray At that time Anna in her sixth year was too young to understand why Her mother seemed so very unhappy at what should have been her moment of joy. At the birth of her new baby sister she watched her poor mother in tears As she held her crying eight baby she realized with the passing of the years That her mother did not weep with elation but with the sorrow of one more to clothe and to feed And with a husband too fond of his liquor one more problem she did not need. A memory she retains from her childhood and something she will never forget Her mother wept as she held baby June not tears of joy but of regret That she had given birth to another baby into hardship and to poverty And she worried that she could not cope with the needs of her growing family. Anna was fifty one on her last birthday she is one who was raised in the hard way And though she still looks rather pretty her brown hair is now flecked with gray Her most vivid memory from childhood was seeing her mother in tears Whilst holding June her new baby sister a memory not faded by years.