She should be buying pearls and Persian brass In dim bazaars or crystal-lighted rooms; She should be choosing gold Venetian glass, And silken webs of China's ancient looms! But she is selling shoddy things to wear, Across a basement counter's Bridge of Sighs -- With youth's untarnished gold upon her hair, And youth's blue wildfire burning in her eyes. Her beauty breaks the heart -- such loveliness, Such morning grace immured and tethered down! So bright is she, held here in dark duresse Behind "The Biggest Bargain Sale In Town," She lights the crumpled heaps of cotton lace And casts a glamour on her prison-place! |