EJACULATIONS ON MILDAY'S DRESSING TABLE
BY WAYNE GRIFFITH MILLER

Ye Gods;
Behold the array -
Generals , Colonels , Captains , non-coms and privates -
The hosts of vanity in parade formation.

Or , perhaps , only a bit of landscape gardening on the dresser top.
(Methinks she admires the outfit as much as she uses it!)
The tall bottles and vials are noble trees -
Those squatty , fat jars are clumps of shrub.
Colors , too , in pleasing variety.
She was ever color-hungry.

But no - she does use them!
Some are half - empty!

Ah, well -
Time was when her beauty was freshly born with each new dawn.
No dependence then upon concoctions and astringents.
Even yet she uses these condiments with indifferent zeal!
Next year - and the next - will she rely more and more upon them!

And why ! Why all the struggle for beauty?
But should I decry it?
Beauty is the one essential to love.
If natural charm will not tarry beyond forty
By all means let it come from bottles,
Flasks , jars, masks, boxes, curlers, patches,
Whatnot.
Beauty there must be!

Could I, I wonder , use such arts
To keep warm her love for me?