The unvarnished
Truth is on display
When she removes her paint, at close of day.
Alone in her room, with tarnished
Skin,
She broods on sin
And the he
Who corrupted she.

But was the man to blame?
For an answering flame
There was in her,
He would swear,
Were he there
In the lionesses’s lair.

Is Adam to blame
For Eve’s shame
If he find an answering spark
Within her heart?

Yet he lit the match
And his pleasure took when she did catch
Alight
That night
Long ago.
She did not say “No”
But what a temptation
To dissipation
Is hard cash to a young woman in debt,
And yet …