Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BARE HANDS, by ALICE G. HARVEY


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BARE HANDS, by                    
First Line: A lad with eager, anxious eyes
Last Line: To pay for a place to sleep.
Subject(s): Cities; Farm Life; Labor & Laborers; Urban Life; Agriculture; Farmers; Work; Workers


A lad with eager, anxious eyes
Came to my door at dusk
Asking for work
To pay for a place to sleep.

The bitter, slashing wind
Tore at his ragged clothes;
But he had not liked the farm --
Too much hard work,
With naught but earth and sky and hogs,
And endless rows of grain.

He had thought the city
Was a place of pleasure,
Where men dressed up,
To work at shiny desks.

But he brought to the city
Only his bare hands
With which to toil.
His knowledge was only of fields and crops,
And so he walked the busy city streets,
Asking for work
To pay for a place to sleep.





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