OPTIMISM

On that cold table, where shameless, without blushing

They spread their nakedness,

I see what yesterday had been a living beauty

And is to-day a corpse—

A flimsy mass of tissues and of juices,

The prey of autopsy to-day,

To-morrow prey of worms and dissolution.

And whilst the perfume of this lifeless flower,

Concoction made of chemicals and death,