Smoked Out

                                                 (originally ‘Beyond The Haze’)

Within the rings of curling smoke,

     I see her face again;

The same old smile plays there a while,

     But ah! I reach in vain.

‘Tis gone! ‘tis gone! the empty air

     Holds nothing here for me;

And so I fill the room until

     No phantoms I can see.

For if a man’s "love-dream” has once

     Gone up in smoke, why not

Lay off and puff it dense enough

     That it shall be forgot?

June 24, ‘94

Pub. in B. Courier

Mar. 10, 1895