Ladies

Ladies of leisure,
with their eyes on the back roads ---
All looking for strangers,
to whom they extend welcomes

With a smile and a glimpse
of pink knees and elbows;
Of satin and velvet ---
good ladies, good fortune.

Ladies.

They sing of their heroes:
of solitary soldiers
Invested in good health
and manner most charming.

Whose favors are numbered
(none the less well intended)
By hours in a minute;
by those ladies who bless them.

Ladies.