Alice

Where did you come from? Where did you go?
We know so little about your life;
Only the fact that you bore a child,
And weren't, apparently, a wife.

The only document we possess
Calls you "a bootbinder" by trade,
Part of our family firm, no doubt,
By whom the local shoes were made.

Another mother raised your child,
Along with several of her own.
To her, they were her family.
Was her real mother even known?

The daughter had a happier life,
Married, and later bore a son.
But what became of you? My search,
Dear Alice, has only just begun.