Advice To Mary MacLane

                                                          (After W.J.L.)

Oh!

Mae MacLane

Won’t you please go home

Again?

Boston

Is too narrow chested

For you.

You need Room,

And Atmosphere.

Boston Common

Is full of subways

And rare trees,

Marie.

There’s no room for literary gymnastics,

Or bronco poses.

Say!

You may be a Montana Gem

Butte

You’re in the rough.

It’s tough

To have to leave the West,

And ma, too,

And come out here

Amongst the uncivilized

And unpoetical

To try to teach we ‘uns

Good English.

But say,

Mae,

Fight shy of Radcliffe,

They’ll puncture your tire

Of ambition and self esteem

Quicker than a Montana

Cowboy

Ever Plugged a tenderfoot’s

Hat brim.

Take heed, O, genius,

And straddle a wild-eyed

Bronco

And scamper away

To Butte,

Montana,

And help your Ma.

July 20, 1902

W.J.L. – William James Lampton

c. 1902

Mary MacLane (May 1, 1881 — c. 6 August 1929) was a controversial Canadian- born American writer whose frank memoirs helped usher in the confessional style of autobiographical writing MacLane was known as the "Wild Woman of Butte".

MacLane was a very popular author for her time, scandalizing the populace with her shocking bestselling first memoir and to a lesser extent her two following books. She was considered wild and uncontrolled, a reputation she nurtured, and was openly bisexual as well as a vocal feminist. In her writings, she compared herself to another frank young memoirist, Marie Bashkirtseff, who died a few years after MacLane was born, and H. L. Mencken called her "the Butte Bashkirtseff."         https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_MacLane