III.


Tell me, is the rose naked
or is that her only dress?

Why do trees conceal
the splendor of their roots?

Who hears the regrets
of the thieving automobile?

Is there anything in the world sadder 
than a train standing in the rain?

Lady, lady, should you meet
One whose ways are all discreet,
One who murmurs that his wife
Is the lodestar of his life,
One who keeps assuring you
That he never was untrue,
Never loved another one . . .
Lady, lady, better run!

     Some men, some men 
     Cannot pass a 
     Book shop. 
(Lady, make your mind up, and wait your life away.)

     Some men, some men 
     Cannot pass a 
     Crap game. 
(He said he’d come a moonrise, and here’s another day!) 

     Some men, some men, 
     Cannot pass a 
     Bar-room. 
(Wait about, and hang about, and that’s the way it goes.)

     Some men, some men
     Cannot pass a 
     Woman. 
(Heaven never send me another one of those!)

     Some men, some men, 
     Cannot pass a 
     Golf course. 
(Read a book, and sew a seam, and slumber if you can.) 

      Some men, some men, 
      Cannot pass a 
      Haberdasher’s. 
(All your life you wait around for some damn man!) 

I know I have been happiest at your side; 
But what is done, is done, and all’s to be. 
And small the good, to linger dolefully,—
Gaily it lived, and gallantly it died.
I will not make you songs of hearts denied, 
And you, being man, would have no tears of me, 
And should I offer you fidelity, 
You’d be, I think, a little terrified. 

Yet this the need of woman, this her curse:
To range her little gifts, and give, and give, 
Because the throb of giving’s sweet to bear. 
To you, who never begged me vows or verse, 
My gift shall be my absence, while I live; 
But after that, my dear, I cannot swear. 

SAY my love is easy had,
      Say I’m bitten raw with pride,
Say I am too often sad,––
   Still behold me at your side.

Say I’m neither brave nor young,
   Say I woo and coddle care,
Say the devil touched my tongue,––
   Still you have my heart to wear.

But say my verses do not scan,
   And I get me another man!