An Angel of Mercy Schemes to Undermine Grief

(Found here)

          By the rivers of Babylon   women washed laundry

     in their own tears   & by the Thames   those widowed

or abandoned   took in the washing of well-to-do neighbours

          One woman   whose tough labours

     rarely received payment enough   often scrubbed

clothes to glow   like heavenly raiment

          Up to her elbows in steaming tubs

     hands wrinkling red in harsh suds   her youth

flowed away in grey water

          Her need was a seed   for an angel of mercy

     to plant in soft soil   I found her grown daughter

able to bring her in   That’s how multiplied blessings begin

~D. S. Martin