I
HAVE INHERITED NO COUNTRY HOUSE
28
I have inherited no country house
I keep no mistress I never scatter dimes.
You will not find my people's names
Listed or recorded in the New York Times.
Our small catastrophes of life
The sunday editors never print,
My brother crippled in a mine
My sister dying, coughing lint.
A brief notice in some local paper
Is inserted when a dear one dies
I have no ancestors who fought
The English for the seas and merchandise.
The Board of Health records my birth
But not my mother's screams or pain.
My application for relief neglects
The hunger of my heart and brain.
Long forgotten, one with the masses' bones,
A strong man, a mason, in Elizabeth's time,
Broke with his hammer a tax collector's skull.
The land took fire. This ancestor is mine.
ALFRED
HAYES
