| Harriet Monroe, ed. (18601936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 191222. | | | | A Petit Bourgeois | | By Max Michelson |
| | From Masks SHARP nails grow out from your fat fingers; | |
| Over your clean-shaven lip glimmers the moustache of a tom-cat. | |
| Your smiles are investments at a hundred per-cent. | |
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| Yet one has only one life, one mouth, one stomach, and can take only one woman at a time; | |
| Also, when you were younger, before you knew, | 5 |
| You foolishly allowed suffering to reach your heart. | |
| So your face sometimes contorts wistfully | |
| You use this sanctimoniously to deceive. | | | | |
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