Each in Her Own Way

I. What Lily Sees

Aunt Addie's having a baby.
No one talks about it, or looks at her much,
but you can tell. We went over on Sunday
and everyone seemed more spent
than other times. The men walked
out in the fields. It's odd to think
that we'll be living there soon, eight of us—
or nine—in those two good rooms
the rain don’t get in.


II. Cora, to Herself

What was she thinking? Addie
with her head in the sky.
I know she grew tired of being lonely.
Now no one will have her,
and how will she raise a child?
She can't work in the mills up North—
and what will she do here?
She says she'll name the baby,
if it’s a girl, after a star.