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From: syn@uo-vax1.UUCP (syn)
Newsgroups: net.poems
Subject: Hard Times
Message-ID: <85200002@uo-vax1.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 29-Jan-85 11:15:00 EST
Article-I.D.: uo-vax1.85200002
Posted: Tue Jan 29 11:15:00 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 1-Feb-85 21:15:20 EST
Organization: Univ of Oregon - Eugene, OR
Lines: 34
Nf-ID: #N:uo-vax1:85200002:000:860
Nf-From: uo-vax1!syn    Jan 29 08:15:00 1985


	Hard times came.

	One year we planted cabbages in the rose garden,
	the next it was onions in the borders
	and lettuce where the pansies bloomed.

	Survival is an adventure.
	One can admire a dunghill
	as well as the flame-grained wood
	that warms one.  Matilda's tapestry
	was made as much to keep out drafts
	as to honor the king.

	We eat with peasants now,
	proud to be their equals in work.
	If example does not teach them, will speech?

	We rise early.
	I did not know what we had lost
	until I went to the lake at dawn
	and a young knight on a white horse
	came wading the white breath of water.
	His helm was silver and his eye blue as morning.

	When I had bound the rushes
	he asked me, nodding at the tower--
	"Is your mistress fair?"

				syn


*Help, folks, I can't figure out how to return people's messages.  Thanks
for the kind words, though.