The Bean Eaters

This week I read the poem, The Bean Eaters by Gwendolyn Brooks. With, the care that I took, the words overlooked, I realized how it parallels the pain in the lives of the old grandparents, I know, who've died. The little poem is both amazing and heartbreaking. So true it takes breath from me. The imagery and symbols, relate to life, of old people. A pair, set in an impoverished kinda home with creaking wood, a place no one should live alone, let alone live as two, this home with creaking wood, belonged to, "Two who are Mostly Good."(The Bean Eaters, Gwendolyn Brooks) A pair, living alone without others in this home, children, if any, possibly grown, moved out, spread out and roamed. This forgotten couple, Mostly Good, plenty of room, plenty of room for food, when they are eating beans. The meaning, that I got, was that this couple was poor, alone with a creaking floor with chores that become second nature. Moving about, folding clothes, to keep themselves aglow. No one around, they've lived their days and have grown old eating just beans. The heartbreaking truth for so many pairs of grandparents that I knew, lived this fate as I watched their children, also old, leave them to fade alone at home with chipped paint and wood.
The poem, explains poverty, loneliness, and gives a glimpse to others of the hard life people may have that are affected by society, government, politics, growing old and growing up.