Macdougal Street
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s I went walking up and down to take the evening air,(Sweet to meet upon the street, why must I be so shy?)I saw him lay his hand upon her torn black hair;("Little dirty Latin child, let the lady by!") The women squatting on the stoops were slovenly and fat,(Lay me out in organdie, lay me out in lawn!)And everywhere I stepped there was a baby or a cat;(Lord God in Heaven, will it never be dawn?) The fruit-carts and clam-carts were ribald as a fair,(Pink nets and wet shells trodden under heel)She had haggled from the fruit-man of his rotting ware;(I shall never get to sleep, the way I feel!) He walked like a king through the filth and the clutter,(Sweet to meet upon the street, why did you glance me by?)But he caught the quaint Italian quip she flung him from the gutter;(What can there be to cry about that I should lie and cry?) He laid his darling hand upon her little black head,(I wish I were a ragged child with ear-rings in my ears!)And he said she was a baggage to have said what she had said;(Truly I shall be ill unless I stop these tears!)
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