Because I was not marked

Because I had neither fame

nor beauty nor inquisitiveness.

Because I did not ask.

Because I used my hands.

Because I ate potatoes in dirty jackets

fished from the rocks.

Because I used a pail at night.

Because when Betty C. explained

to Betty D. the nature of the problem

I did not understand.

Because I had no silver.

Because I was like my mother before me

and kept to myself mostly.

Because humanity used the footpath.

Because my backbone started to rot.

Because I finished my term on earth

and had no knowledge of either

fear nor care, no morning knowledge,

no knowledge of evening,

and those who came before

and those following after

had no more knowledge of me

than I had of them