“The Great White Way”

(“Longing the see the ‘Great White Way’ is what led two Amesbury girls to run away from home.”)

The “Great White Way”, pray what is it,

     That calls so loud today?

Is it a fancy, just a name,

     A fanciful highway

Where spectre souls pass up and down

     In search of light and gay?

What is this thing that poets sing,

     What is the “Great White Way”?

The “Great White Way” has monster arms

     That reach beyond the town;

It is the city octopus

     For lonely souls cast down.

Its dazzling rays shine far and wide,

     It bids all men be gay;

Its wondrous light destroys the night,

     This brilliant Great White Way.

Alas! It has another side,

     An undertow of gloom;

Beyond the scorching, fickle blaze

     There is the living tomb!

Each human soul is but a moth

     Seeking the bright and gay;

Alas! Beware, who seek the glare,

     Beware the “Great White Way”!

Oct. 4, ‘10

For Tues. Oct. 6, ‘10