The Unwed Mother To The Wife

I had been almost happy for an hour,     Lost to the world that knew me in the park     Among strange faces; while my little girl     Leaped with the squirrels, chirruped with the birds     And with the sunlight glowed.    She was so dear,     So beautiful, so sweet; and for the time     The rose of love, shorn of its thorn of shame,     Bloomed in my heart.    Then suddenly you passed.     I sat alone upon the public bench;     You, with your lawful husband, rode in state;     And when your eyes fell on me and my child,     They were not eyes, but daggers, poison tipped.     God! how good women slaughter with a look!     And, like cold steel, your glance cut through my heart,     Struck every petal from the rose of love     And left the ragged stalk alive with thorns.     My little one came running to my side     And called me Mother.    It was like a blow     Between the eyes; and made me sick with pain.     And then it seemed as if each bird and breeze     Took up the word, and changed its syllables     From Mother into Magdalene; and cried     My shame to all the world.         It was your eyes     Which did all this.    But listen now to me     (Not you alone, but all the barren wives     Who, like you, flaunt their virtue in the face     Of fallen women):    I do chance to know     The crimes you think are hidden from all men     (Save one who took your gold and sold his skill     And jeopardized his name for your base ends).     I know how you have sunk your soul in sense     Like any wanton; and refused to bear     The harvest of your pleasure-planted seed;     I know how you have crushed the tender bud     Which held a soul; how you have blighted it;     And made the holy miracle of birth     A wicked travesty of God's design;     Yea, many buds, which might be blossoms now     And beautify your selfish, arid life,     Have been destroyed, because you chose to keep     The aimless freedom, and the purposeless,     Self-seeking liberty of childless wives.     I was an untaught girl.    By nature led,     By love and passion blinded, I became     An unwed mother.    You, an honoured wife,     Refuse the crown of motherhood, defy     The laws of nature, and fling baby souls     Back in the face of God.    And yet you dare     Call me a sinner, and yourself a saint;     And all the world smiles on you, and its doors     Swing wide at your approach.         I stand outside.     Surely there must be higher courts than earth,     Where you and I will some day meet and be     Weighed by a larger justice.