The Woman Who Deserves

I would not sing, though I’d been stung,

Of woman with a serpent’s tongue;

I fain would turn my gentle muse

Into a more inspiring use.

I would not pen a doleful lay

To bring a moment dull and gray,

But fain would sing, in merry quips

Of woman with the cherry lips.

Let him who’s skipped upon the rung

Sing of the woman’s serpent tongue;

Let him who’s earned himself the blow

Bring to the world a song of woe.

No serpent’s tongue in dreams of mine,

I would a smile in every line;

I fain would sing in rhapsodies

Of women with the laughing eyes.

The woman with the serpent’s tongue

Pray let her be fore’er unsung;

If she be all the poet tells

Pray leave her in forgotten cells,

But she who wears a cheerful smile

Ah, poetize her all the while.

I fain would give my every line

The woman with the heart divine.

Dec. 12, ‘09