Screen Doors

We sat and talked; the shadows grew more tall And golden sunlight blended over all. We spoke of crops that failed, of horses, men. He said, “I started work when I was ten. I peddled cottage cheese from door to door. The youngest of us six, and we were poor.”

His blue eyes looked beyond the fall-ploughed loam, Where on the sunlit hill he saw his home; He filled his pipe, lighted a match and stood, The whole six feet of him were staunch and good. “It matters not,” he said, “how much I’ve seen; I learned of human nature through the screen.”