She stood there at the window As so many times before Staring at the foaming waves Breaking on the shore Her eyes were filled with longing As she gazed out on the bay Her face was lined and wrinkled And her hair was silver grey Her tiny stooping body Was bent with toil and care Her dress was plain and simple For black was all she'd wear She lost a loving daughter Just sixteen years ago Dying at an early age So common as we know Just seven short years later While he was far at sea She lost her loving husband He drowned with twenty-three And now her son was out at sea She tried to keep him home But he was young and fearless So she had to let him roam And so she stood there all that night Transfixed by the gale As squalls beat down upon her house A mother's living hell Then when the dawn was breaking She fell upon her bed And slept into the morning As someone who was dead A loud knock came upon her door She woke up filled with dread She shuffled down the narrow stairs On legs that felt like lead A man in black stood at her door His face all pale and grim She lift the latch, the door swung back And death came creeping in She sank unto the canvas floor As she heard the words he said Then her world turned dark around her And they thought that she was dead Her only son was lost at sea I heard the old folk say She never ever smiled again Until her dying day Don Legge Mount Pearl   Submitted By: NULL