In My House

Now let me Mary and not Martha be that I'm alone
Again in this small place.
For I have seen too much of folk, and I'd not scant sweet
time
In dusting out each trace
Of them. But let me from this couch, where fragrance
of petunia
Creeps across the room,
Or lying on the rug, from where, in the wide blue Wedge-
wood bowl,
The flaming zinnias bloom,
Before the mantel where the doorway gives your pic-
ture light,
Or in that wide-armed chair,
Feel this isolation like the comfort of cool water
In our August glare,
Like a holy presence, like the lamp that ever burns
Before the altar, like prayer,

^__Margaret E. Haughawout.

Sheep's Clothing
Margaret E. Haughawout
Page 47
(Pittsburg, Kansas: __. 1929)