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COUPLETS

Girls are such exquisite things Fragile, dainty, deadly things. Men are clumsy, mauling clods Crushing girls like brutal Gods. She is fragrant, lovely, light Her hands move like birds in flight. I am old and scarred and tired Still my heart her beauty fired. Knew it hopeless, turned to go - Gods of heartache, thundered "No!" I should stay and suffer more? What are songs of Beauty for!

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"... AND THERE CAME A DANCER"

The gaunt hall was filled with men. Bright badges of servitude Glittered on khaki shoulders As fighting men, Their dull thoughts groping for utterance Cursed conversationally And shifted in their seats. The lights died And there was silence. A whirling lance of golden notes Stabbed through the air. The dull curtains swept apart. The stage glowed llike a soft gold cavern. And there came a dancer! Rose pink her dress Standing stiffly from the ivory white Of her soft body. Her hair a tight, tortured mass of molded jet With little, shining gleams of an old beauty Bringing a new light to tired eyes. Like a fresh rose petal Tossed fluttering down a filthy alley She danced, Her incredibly dainty feet Tapping the beat on men's hearts And on pine boards. Another whirl of glorious sound And she was gone. In the cast monotony of the barracks Men Laid loosely in the rigid conformity of their beds And dreamed. Pipe bowls blowed a dancer's rose pink In the dark.