Edward Silvera (Edward S. Silvera), "Disappointment" (1927)
By Edward S. Silvera
There’s sorrow in your face,
Old woman,
I can plainly see
The pain beneath your wrinkled smile
That aches incessantly.
There’s a quiver in your speech,
Old man,
I clearly hear
A trembling in your feeble voice,
A trembling as from fear.
A daughter fallen by the way,
All fond hopes turned to lies,
One son in jail—
Another, dead,
How could you be elsewise?
Published in The Crisis, October 1927