| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | Girls | | By Max Michelson |
| | From “Masks”
I YOUR family has moulded you. | |
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| Marks of their tools and fingers | |
| Show about your torse and face. | |
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| Your cheeks near the mouth | |
| Are half-frozen. | 5 |
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| Your soul flutters | |
| Faintly. | |
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II Your flesh slopes like rose-petals. | |
| Like rose-petals | |
| It holds and drinks in the light. | 10 |
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| Your humid lips | |
| Remember the mother’s milk. | |
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| Yet there flutters about you a flame— | |
| Maturing you, withering you. | |
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III In the cafeteria the girl moved briskly | 15 |
| In her imitation silk, sashed, hang-how-it-will dress; | |
| Yet knocked constantly against the customs— | |
| In taking her water, her sugar, her catsup. | |
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| In the street too she walked briskly, | |
| The old purse dangling and the old hat moving firmly; | 20 |
| Of a sudden she stopped, looked about, listened— | |
| Struck by the city—shot—like a flying bird. | |
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| Then she took herself in hand and went on. | | | | |
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