They eat beans mostly, this old yellow pair.
Their dinner is a casual affair.
Plain chipware on a plain and creaking wood,
  Tin flatware.

Two who are Mostly Good.
Two who have lived their day,
But keep on putting on their clothes
And putting things away.

And remembering...
Remembering, with twinklings and twinges,
As they lean over the beans in their rented back room
    that is full of beads and receipts and dolls
    and cloths, tobacco crumbs, vases and fringes.

(Poetry, September 1959, vol. 94, no. 6)

Reprinted By Consent of Brooks Permissions