Robert Hayden
Homage to the Empress of the Blues
Because there was a man somewhere in a candystripe silk shirt,
gracile and dangerous as a jaguar and because a woman moaned for him
in sixty-watt gloom and mourned him Faithless Love
Twotiming Love Oh Love Oh Careless Aggravating Love,
She came out on the stage in yards of pearls, emerging like
a favorite scenic view, flashed her golden smile and sang.
Because grey laths began somewhere to show from underneath
torn hurdygurdy lithographs of dollfaced in heaven;
and because there were those who feared alarming fists of snow
on the door and those who feared the riot-squad of statistics,
She came out on the stage in ostrich feathers, beaded satin,
and shone that smile on us and sang.