| T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22. | | | Dinner at the Hotel de la Tigresse Verte
I. Terrace | | By Donald Evans (1884–1921) |
| | (From Two Deaths in the Bronx, 1916) |
|
AS they sat sipping their glasses in the courtyard | |
| Of the Hotel de la Tigresse Verte, | |
| With their silk-swathed ankles softly kissing, | |
| They were certain that they had forever | |
| Imprisoned fickleness in the vodka— | 5 |
| They knew they had found the ultimate pulse of love. | |
| |
| Story upon story, the dark windows whispered down | |
| To them from above, and over the roof’s edge | |
| Danced a grey moon. | |
| |
| The woman pressed her chicken-skin fan against her breast | 10 |
| And through her ran trepidant mutinies of desire | |
| With treacheries of emotion. Her voice vapored: | |
| “In which room shall it be tonight, darling”? | |
| His eyes swept the brood facade, the windows, | |
| Tier upon tier, and his lips were regnant: | 15 |
| “In every room, my beloved!” | | | |
|
|
|
