The Widow of 104

Head of an Old Woman (1881) by Robert Koehler

There sits in her room the widow of 104,

Whiskered chin to withered chest,

Eyes affixed upon the sullied floor

Of some such home for some such women

Where every day one thousand legs pass her door

Never once with bended knee to meet the eyes

That once held a cold babe and a husband lost in war.