Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

Song of Mocking for an Old Woman

Myrtle Eberstein

She is old,

Her breasts are withered,

Nobody will give cows for her.

When she goes to carry water

The shining black young men,

Big, laughing lazily,

They mock at her

Although she carries them water and food at noon.

“She is old,” they say,

“Old and withered like the dead mangrove

That once had red blossoms.”

They do not know

Red blossoms are in her heart still,

For her breasts are withered.

She is old:

None would give cows for her.