T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
A Bargain
By Harold Greenthal
(1921)
A DRACHMA? List to me, thou worn-out couch of love! Hast thou at thy hovel, a bed of softest down which holds the imprint of each limb, that thou should’st ask me for a drachma?
“And do thy slaves run round in silks and golden anklets, and do they serve to thy unfortunate guest, a skyphos of aged wine and dried figs from Rhodes that he may the while forget thee? A drachma! Good father Zeus, dost hear?
“A drachma? Bah! Why, Wrinkles, the naiads would forsake the woods for that, and Lais would turn over in her tomb! I guess thou playest upon the innocent, but, though I’m still a youth, full many curious things I’ve done and known. And yet thou askest for a drachma!
“Away, and trim the bristling hair around thy lips, and clean thy nails, and wash thine arms in milk! A drachma! What’s that thou sayest? Three obols? Ah, well, I’ll go with thee for that, my dear, I’ll go with thee for that!”
