T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
From “May Woods”
By Zella Muriel Wright(To J. K.) (From A Pagan Anthology, 1918) |
YOU are like all the others— | |
| “Will she | |
| Or will she not | |
| Give me her body?” | |
| That is the question | 5 |
| That teases and torments you | |
| And sends you reeling forth | |
| Into the night, | |
| Singing to the stars; | |
| Or striding angrily down dusty roads, | 10 |
| Striking off the heads | |
| Of helpless flowers | |
| With your cane. | |
| And I smile at your agitation | |
| The smile you call inscrutable. | 15 |
| I smile because I know | |
| Only too well | |
| That sooner or later—sooner or later— | |
| Even I, | |
| Knowing the pain | 20 |
| And the cost of the aftermath of love…. | |
| And after you have known | |
| The full strength of my arms | |
| To hold you. | |
| After you have felt the sting and fire of me, | 25 |
| After you have known my longest kiss— | |
| A kiss which almost strangles— | |
| Instead of being more to you | |
| I shall be less….. | |
| And you will go | 30 |
| Because | |
| No longer | |
| I smile | |
| The smile | |
| The smile you call inscrutable. | 35 |