HE NEVER KNEW:

HE-

For a small pittance he worked & daily he toiled,

Returning home at dusk, dust-clad, wearily soiled,

The love for his wife & children, was always eager,

Despite poverty & his pay packet, always so meager.

 

SHE-

Daily she awaited him, with open arms & heated hearth,

As he nightly trudged to his home, along his daily path,

Waiting for him, a hot meal, a ready touch & a gentle kiss,

She ensured that at home, he felt there was nothing amiss.

 

HE-

He never ever knew of her sacrifices, with love & daily made,

He never even knew, that she was ever & often so very afraid,

He was only so proud of the home; she so very lovingly kept,

He only knew he loved her, but not, that alone she quietly wept.

 

SHE-

She was the one, who drank, from the old floral cracked cup,

Who ate from broken plate, with hidden chip the other way up,

She´d top & tail frayed sheets, she would, sew & secretly darn,

She thought, what he didn’t know, would never do him any harm.

 

HE-

He never saw the newspaper, which was stuffed within her shoes,

Leaving her poor old feet, through the holes, so icy cold & bruised,

He never saw the hole in her coat, the one that had never been new,

It was loving him as much as she did, the reason that he never knew.

 

THEY-

He left this earth, his wife & hearth, on one very cold winter´s dawn,

Life taking its cruel toll & left her a widow, to sadly & quietly mourn,

And then while watching his ashes, as away on the winds they blew,

She thanked God above, for all that on earth, he never really knew.