T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
In the Restaurant
By Claire Bu Zard(From The Pagan, 1920) OH, dark and fascinating young man, | |
(Sitting opposite me at the restaurant-table), | |
There are spots of color on your thin cheek-bones | |
And your eyes are deep and smoldering…. | |
Your feverish fingers hold hopefully your glass of milk | 5 |
And you eat your soft-boiled eggs with a relish. | |
But I see a black shadow at your elbow, | |
Oh, dark young man, | |
And I know the meaning of your too-red cheeks, | |
And of that reckless light in your too-bright eyes…. | 10 |
I know why you drink that tasteless warm white drink, | |
And why you suffer soft-boiled eggs at noon…. | |
But I know, too, | |
Oh, dark and fascinating young man, | |
(Sitting opposite me at the restaurant-table), | 15 |
That you are a hundred times more hopeful, | |
More passionate, more alive than I— | |
I,—rugged, and bursting my stays with vulgar health,— | |
I,—eating my juicy steak and cherry pie— | |
I,—already nearing the age of thirty-nine | 20 |
And without a lover…. | |