THE HARLEM DANCER
14 lines✦
pplauding youths laughed with young prostitutesAnd watched her perfect, half-clothed body sway;Her voice was like the sound of blended flutesBlown by black players upon a picnic day.She sang and danced on gracefully and calm,The light gauze hanging loose about her form;To me she seemed a proudly-swaying palmGrown lovelier for passing through a storm.Upon her swarthy neck black shiny curlsLuxuriant fell; and tossing coins in praise,The wine-flushed, bold-eyed boys, and even the girls,Devoured her shape with eager, passionate gaze;But looking at her falsely-smiling face,I knew her self was not in that strange place.
✦