To feed one, she worked from home,
took in washing, ironing, sewing.
One small mouth, a soup-filled spoon,
life was a dream.
To feed two,
she worked outside, sewed seeds, watered,
threshed, scythed, gathered barley, wheat, corn.
Twins were born. To feed four,
she grafted harder, second job in the alehouse,
food in the larder, food on the table,
she was game, able. Feeding ten
The neat  enjambment  and rhyming of “corn” and “born” move the stanza on quickly, suggesting the exhausting pace of life that the women led.
Work