| |
| GAY little Girl-of-the-Diving-Tank, | |
| I desire a name for you, | |
| Nice, as a right glove fits; | |
| For you—who amid the malodorous | |
| Mechanics of this unlovely thing, | 5 |
| Are darling of spirit and form. | |
| I know you—a glance, and what you are | |
| Sits-by-the-fire in my heart. | |
| My Limousine-Lady knows you, or | |
| Why does the slant-envy of her eye mark | 10 |
| Your straight air and radiant inclusive smile? | |
| Guilt pins a fig-leaf; Innocence is its own adorning. | |
| The bull-necked man knows you—this first time | |
| His itching flesh sees form divine and vibrant health | |
| And thinks not of his avocation. | 15 |
| I came incuriously— | |
| Set on no diversion save that my mind | |
| Might safely nurse its brood of misdeeds | |
| In the presence of a blind crowd. | |
| The color of life was gray. | 20 |
| Everywhere the setting seemed right | |
| For my mood. Here the sausage and garlic booth | |
| Sent unholy incense skyward; | |
| There a quivering female-thing | |
| Gestured assignations, and lied | 25 |
| To call it dancing; | |
| There, too, were games of chance | |
| With chances for none; | |
| But oh! Girl-of-the-Tank, at last! | |
| Gleaming Girl, how intimately pure and free | 30 |
| The gaze you send the crowd, | |
| As though you know the dearth of beauty | |
| In its sordid life. | |
| We need you—my Limousine-Lady, | |
| The bull-necked man and I. | 35 |
| Seeing you here brave and water-clean, | |
| Leaven for the heavy ones of earth, | |
| I am swift to feel that what makes | |
| The plodder glad is good; and | |
| Whatever is good is God. | 40 |
| The wonder is that you are here; | |
| I have seen the queer in queer places, | |
| But never before a heaven-fed | |
| Naiad of the Carnival-Tank! | |
| Little Diver, Destiny for you, | 45 |
| Like as for me, is shod in silence; | |
| Years may seep into your soul | |
| The bacilli of the usual and the expedient; | |
| I implore Neptune to claim his child to-day! | |
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