If I were God--the first thing I would do Would be to make all women beautiful.-- All women beautiful--and all men strong. Then I'd resign--and make myself a man. That's just what I would do--if I were God. 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, Inflicts an outrage on my sense of odor, Does disenchantment fill me with disgust? Does Death's black wing engulf me in its shadow? And being face to face with life's fragility Am I made sick of life? I am not sick of life. I prize life more knowing how brief it is, How insecure, how fragile and how fleeting. I love the eyes bright with the spark of life, I love them more knowing they'll soon be dimmed. I love the lips aglow with warmth of life, I love them more because they'll soon be cold. I love all flesh that palpitates with life, I love it more knowing it soon shall be An inert, flimsy mass of fetid tissue. I love the voice that rings with sounds of life, I love it more knowing 'twill soon be silent. I love the mind pregnant with living thought, I love it more knowing that soon 'twill be The tomb of thought. I therefore let the dead bury their dead, And like a buzzing bee in quest of flowers I seek the flowers of life that gladly yield The sap that love distills to joy--that joy That is much sweeter than the sweetest honey. THE CLOUD There hovers over me a muddy cloud, Enveloping me in its gloomy shadow, That dims the native sunshine of my heart, That dulls the keen perception of the mind, That stunts the latent powers of the soul, That smothers all the rising flames of hope, That cowes the wings of genius that would soar. I am forever followed by this cloud, I can't escape, I cannot flee this cloud, This muddy, gloomy, hell-begotten cloud-- The dollar sign is traced upon this cloud! QUESTIONINGS Is it because the sun caresses me And makes me warm with its delightful rays That it is mine? That it is only mine? Is it because I frolic in the sea, The sea that hugs me with a thousand waves, That it is mine? That it is only mine? Is it because I hold you in my arms And madly kiss you, calling you my love, That you are mine? That you are only mine? THE LIBERTY I LOATHE I am at large, can go this way and that, No dungeon walls, no prison bars say halt, When roving fancies seize upon my feet.