Housewife

With busy needle, thimble, treadle,
she turned bed sheets sides to middle,
let down hems, inserted lengtheners.
Pockets made patch elbow strengtheners.

Every inch of her back garden
grew successions of abundant
vegetables, fruit ? delicious,
picked to eat with Same?day freshness.

Plums Preserved in lines of bottles,
jams in jars and onions pickled,
serried rows on shelves in pantry
testament to her. No entry.

In a book ever recorded
how she worked.Quite unrewarded,
just the striving for perfection
gave her ail her motivation.

Surely there's nobility
a true, though quiet celebrity,
when such a woman daily tries
with little means to reach the skies.

Dorothy Pope