Poem

At Table-Setting

By Evangeline Metheny
FOR the table-setting
Fewer are the places,
Fewer round the table
Grow the children’s faces.
Changes, changes, changes
Life and Death are bringing;
Sore my soul misgives me,
Fears my heart are wringing.
Otherwise I fancied
As I hushed their weeping;
Otherwise I fancied
As I watched them sleeping.
Small, we kept them near us,
Thou and I together;
Hard the task without thee,
Lonely the endeavor.
Round the board so crowded
Wider grow the spaces,
For the table-setting
Fewer are the places.