Class ZE§_a_£fi3. Book. 4i 7 ^U^Jtl Copyright^?. fi COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. JEVONS BLOCK A BOOK OF SEX ENMITY KATE BUSS BOSTON McGrath-Sherrill Press NINETEEN SEVENTEEN Copyright, Nineteen Seventeen McGRATH-SHERRILL PRESS JUL 22 1818 4 ©CI.A499975 Thanks a?~e due to the editors of Others, The Poetry Review, and The Boston Transcript for their permission to reprint certain of the poems included in this volume. To Arabelle and Arthrite Bacon, To Ivan and Elise, To a man who sees the substance In mirrors, I am indebted For the truth of Jevons Block. V7 ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZE2ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZEZZZZZZZZZ22&ZZ ZZI devoid IjlocK ~4 roetrj JJooKsKap, RrtKnti'JjacQTi »»Mj///t»»j/»»iimw//»/rr7TrfA Tzzzzzz2Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzizzzzz222Z22zzzz2ZZ2znzmzzzmzzzzzzi ^itectory 25 2L 2a 23 # at a? 2.8 29 30 31 5a 33 3G 37 38 3fl w Suites. Appraiser. Jljamftle^hoes lvd.n uareuiKic = J\ mm Master V/K\lem'md Wittters Smiff jUp &fr* nw) regg T tiot^ra pits- 1M Irdcmcr A.EU Uxidcmi^T iTaH oow V»ss;;;;;;;;j^^;;;;;js;»>»»s>»w;;»;;;s ,ss;;;ssjsss;7 n. ILLUSTRATIONS TYPES AND FACES Cosmetic Seller Arabelle 15 Poet .... Arthrite Bacon 17 Masseur Raphael Lenski 19 Florist Ruth .... 21 Rug Maker Arkel Aronian 23 Doctor Dr. Devine 25 Bric-a-brac Repairer Simon Weaver . 27 Coiffeuse . Elise .... 29 Hat Bleacher . Michael Elder 31 Manicure . M. James 33 Appraiser . Jukes .... 35 37 Corsetiere Celeste Dereme 39 Dancing Master . 41 Dressmaker Whilemina Winter . 43 Drug Clerk Sidney Falk 45 Photographer . Paul Draemer . 47 Taxidermist A. Bly . . . . 49 Tea Room Manager Mrs. Smith-Reeder 51 Entertainment Bureai j Ac rENT Horatio Hinklemitt 53 II PROLOGUE BY THE ELEVATOR BOY ♦ You see me as the elevator boy, But the actuality of my position is ephemeral ; In a year I shall receive a degree in medicine And go. Meanwhile I study the colossal symbol of a human being In this pile of masonry That sanctions the ugly In ornament, in smiles, in sex. I hear a human anger in my signal bell. The shaft down which the elevator slides Is the spine to keep the system together; And the corridors are nerves that link each room As heart and brain that strive in secret. Am I responsible to have said it? Or responsible only so far as I have seen the scheme unfairly ? Abnormal and abortive matter Tighten the leash on truth. To deceive is to establish an enemy — Which brings me to the theme That scars and shadows Jevons Block. PROLOGUE BY THE ELEVATOR BOY, continued It is the subconscious enmity Of the men and women in it. You may hear it in the labored breathing, See it in the eyes that seek for salvage As hawkers swoop and seize in isolation. If sex were meant to be an inhibition, Would God have planned it in dependent atoms ? The poet speaks as though it were a cloak To smarten the circumstance of living — Poor old flabby Bacon — Miss Ruth' s too young to know beyond solicitation — Some never see the enmity of sexes, Having minds that sift no ash — But Anabelle is scarred and states the reason, And Draemer says a woman is the open door to boredom. In each The over-sense of sex Idles the libido to sterile purpose And motivates in Jevons Block To evade responsibility. 13 M ARABELLE Perfumes and Cosmetics I dislike men. Dislike them for the strain They put on women. If I didn't have to earn a living I'd snap my ringers at this fading hair of mine And let the colour in my cheeks Begin to go. I'd sit down to it And rock my age in comfort by the fire. Forty-seven and poor — If you're single — Is the devil of a combination for a woman. Every time a married one Comes in to buy a box of rouge I'd like to tell her she's a fool to do it When she's not obliged to look young. Once I said as much And the woman answered "I guess you're not married Or you'd know the reason". I dislike men For the strain they put on women. [6 ARTHRITE BACON Poetry Bookshop I married a famous palmist In Leipzig — Joined myself to one Who had imagination but no rhythm in her soul To gain a home Long since dissolved by extravagance and death. It was my desire to live well; In Paris if I might choose Where poets are not so much the fashion As the feeders of a lyric nation. The Alexandrine was my metre, None it seems care about that in this country. And not to starve I stilled my song To vend the songs of other poets Whose vocation is but avocation now with me. Fate has not been friend to me. Could I have loved like Rupert Brooke Or lived like Amy Lowell I ask you fairly to decide If I'd be urging you to buy their books Instead of selling my own ? 17 a p n a e I l^e \i s rC 18 RAPHAEL LENSKI Osteopath What would Buonarotti say Who worshipped Vittoria And the sparse line of the Sistine Chapel If he could see the bulk of crepe kimono I must model with. Great thighs and sagging breasts, Muscles I can never tighten 'Though I punch and pound and stretch Until some women shriek to stay me, But they always come again In supine endeavor to get thin. Sometimes one imagines I love her! Lord! They make me sick, These women yearning for a new sensation. Do they think that I would touch them If I were not paid to do it. Master, listen! My lovely lady's shrined next door. 19 RUTH Flower Shop Days when trade is dull I dream of flowers that do not grow in dozens Wired for a funeral or a fete. Somewhere I imagine meadows swaying With whatever colour they may be, Ten thousand thousand blossoms Free their hearts To a robin or a chick-a-dee. And I may pull them for everyone's possession. Companion all the city children, To old ladies send surprise bouquets, Pin a flower on my lover's jacket Every noon at one. And if the sun is over-hot with shining And the night is late to come, It is no matter. There'll be just as many more Tomorrow morning Fresh to feel the sun. 21 \\t) /Won't* 1 ARKEL ARONIAN Rugs Woven and Repaired Weaving rugs to please a rich man Weaving luck for me, Rich man, poor man, Waiting for a rug to finish Fortunes to compare! White's for luck in red Bokhara, Red of warp and woof to wear. White to sign a compact with the Devil Shunting off all evil From my son. Red of thread to savour him White to spare — Pearls to play with And to ask a prayer — Sleep my son in God's securest silence. Thy father'll not have done The red Bokhara 'Til the spring and thou Are come. 23 24 DR. DEVINE Physician Today I am surfeited with women Their streaked faces bore me. Whys Listened to before, Eyes, Wet and bent to implore, Ask for quarter — Weak to meet a ghost When strong they went to seek it — I do not share in their delight, Why must they shamble at my door With secret bills and moist supplication To bribe me to break the law? I do and I may, But for today I shall leave these painful ladies To palliate their sins to someone else Who'll chance their wage. 25 rVtwil* WcaNt \ 26 SIMON WEAVER Bric-a-brac Repaired My neighbor is closeted All day With lovely ladies, They hold his hands and weep. If one should smile at me I would wipe away her tears With my apron, And join together The broken wings of her grief. I will ask my neighbor To bring me a lovely lady To mend. He is walking down the street Swinging a stick 27 23 ELISE Coiffeuse Yes! I know Madame She asked for me And she's a millionaire But I hate her smell. You said yourself the last time she was in 'Twas like a polecat — An' she's got sunken tubs to every chamber, I heard her tell it — A facial! And curl her hair! Gawd! The thermometer's a hundred. You say If I don't do it I can go! Where'd I go in August?. No I wouldn't, That's where you get off. This way Mrs. Smith There's a breeze that's blowing by this window. Let me have your hat, Sailors are so smart with linen suits. 29 1 ickeitl U der — 30 MICHAEL ELDER Hats Reblocked I've worked on hats since I was seventeen And now I'm close to seventy. Straw for tulip and the caring weather, Felt for winter - — Fits more firmly on old men's hair — Wide brim narrowed by a quarter inch (Shows as though 'twas on your nose to some) Ribbon freshed and curve pressed straight. Once I used to ponder Why a hat should need reshaping Just the time some man had formed it To a firm and fellowed feeling By a few months wear. I have learned Through feeling bands that sweat to fit a brow, That men with brains inside their heads Wear their hats the longest. 31 32 M. JAMES Manicure I have known hands all my life. It is my bread to tint an ageing palm That scants its tip for rosaline And the careful removal of dry flesh. Butter for my bread I buy from fingers that make light with mine And slide a dollar in between to make it right. Hands are mostly all alike Thinking through their fingertips Of bargaining and lust. But his are different, Lean and unconcerned with me, Even when lying idle in soapy water. Just to feel his fingers for five minutes Fd perfume them, without money, To philander at another breast than mine. But some day — Before I'm faded with the wanting — I shall do his nails in the farther room And take the pay for waiting There. Little enough it will be But long cherishing quick spent. 33 34 JUKES Appraiser All life's for shrewd appraising. Fools and dreamers take a turn at telling values And philosophers have tried it. Some measure men by bed and book That all the world may see to look — The fools are these. And some will regulate the count By what they are themselves — These are dreamers. Household sticks aren't much to price a life That's furnished by secrets and long sittings; Nor much to make a living by perhaps you'll think, But that's the humor in the plan Though few will laugh to feel it. Grotesques — In low or high relief — We fill the earth's entablature With ashlar or with clay, And form its decoration. When I tiptoe through empty dwellings And see in dusty mirrors Doubts and potent failures That grimace in over-ponderous flesh I am too terrified to laugh. These the Great Appraiser will inspect When I have left my human house untenanted. 35 1 kLandre 36 LEANDRE Sample Shoes Staccato women Wear out paid for leather Seeking newer shoes. Foolish shoppers With their busy quests and baffled eyes. Sometimes one is sorry for me Selling. There is recompense for every service. And all the day Through which my long reflective fingers Feel the urge beneath the silk I am content to linger At your unshod feet. 37 Lclc^JyeTCTTH 3* CELESTE DEREME Cor sett ere Nietzsche says Woman has cause for shame If she unlearns her art of charming. But he had no more transparent plane From which to analyze the world Than I who corset idle women And stand to labour to their conversation. Tiens! Aphrodite is long dead And her progeny are become asexual marionettes To dance and not pay. Some women aid slackened muscles With steel and satin stripes, Some buy stiffened nainsook To shape their barrenness, And mirrors flatter the deception. Yesterday I measured a fevered creature To suckle a child And she completes the metaphor. Clothed in renascent flesh A mirror seemed the last place that she cared to look. When I rejoiced to see comeliness Arrows pointed in her eyes. She was too deceived by fantasie To divine her glory. 39 40 IVAN KARENINE Dancing Master One step — two step — Pardon if I use a pressure My arm dictates the measure, Madame. Listen You who wonder why I dance no longer At the court in Russia. War's the reason — I must fight or live elsewhere — War has naught to do with dancing. War is murder! Mars its wanton father. Sometimes Earth brings forth a bastard. On a silver night she smiles to say "This son of mine I do not breed to fight" I was born within this Mother-rhythm Of listening feet and low and lissome laughter Where ecstasy is breath and measure to the senses, And I can never be a citizen of slaughter. But Mars has sought to snare my feet with battle anthems, And all the day inside my alien head The rage that sped me here Shrieks to follow after. One step — two step — Rhythmed like marching soldiers, Swells to martial music In a language spiked with swords. 41 HMhuemin* VQTr 42 WHILEMINA WINTER Smart Shop Once I dreamed My mission was to make the world good looking, The women I mean — The world is round for men and slopes their way But women need to harbour youth to stay — I'm not for suffrage, as you may think from what I say. But I don't need to ask a favor, And my hair has kept its russet fret and fleck (I'm quoting now about my hair) However, revenons a nos moutons as the Frenchmen say. I bought this shop from a girl who wished to marry, Planned to dress no two the same But show to each her own attainment With clothes objectively designed. Before a year was up I saw I'd never make a living Forcing personalities. Then I figured what it is that Eve is really wanting And discovered — what no male has ever doubted — That every woman dressed to please some man, And few men notice what their women wear If the price is right. Now I dress them all alike And they are better pleased to look like some one else And I can pay my bills. 43 ^T — lilne- \a' SIDNEY FALK Drugs Miss Winter's just been in To drink her malted milk. She buys no other stuff of me — No boxes with their value in the label — And I don't believe she trades with Anabelle. She says that all a woman needs is work To keep her circulation up. Miss Winter's something of a joker, Insists that husbands are like drugs A narcotic to the nervous system. She says she dreams of life In terms of dresses Just as I with drugs. I wish she didn't feel so strong for clothing strangers But it's great to hear her say Deception, respite, dreams, and courage Find in each of us a sharer. And I can wait 'til she is over-tired To alchemize her views with mine. 45 Vftul ~Hrae.me.r 4 6 PAUL DRAEMER Photographer Women bore me. Tenderly they say "Make me beautiful" And then lament If I let a wrinkle stay. They can't see that lines are lovely, That life, not youth, is gay, Or they'd abjure the struggle For the adolescent surface Of unworked clay. Women bore me by too little knowledge Every day. Always they are thinking Men are keen to legalize a look Or coax them to loiter on the way. Why can't they sometimes take for granted We may wish to look away. 47 a.Di * 4 8 A. BLY Taxidermist ♦ I was once a surgeon With the gospel for knife — What sin begat I endeavored to destroy — But there's a strange psychology in sinning, Men pay to seek it Who will not spend a cent to put it away. To say my practice brought no supper to my table Is neither to disprove the existence of sin Nor keep vigil against. Now I scrape the skins of animals To live. Salt for their hides is best. Somberly A Javanese monkey sits on a shelf And obscenely chatters when I edge my tools, But I shall not skin him yet He brings trade from our brothers. 49 rj«5^^ ttltr. So MRS. SMITH-REEDER Tea Room Manager Old women Nod bien coiffe heads Over Orange Pekoe And the bitter green Of English breakfast brew. Young girls come in To gaze at men And bewilder with their bodies. It is not tea they drink — Tea is a sophisticated taste. Only old women know this. 51 °t£Tw HmKl-emYf 5» HORATIO HINKLEMITT Entertainment Bureau The Bible says "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers." No doubt you are surprised to learn I read The Book, But if I didn't seek a smile In Solomon Or that old stoic Epictetus I couldn't swing this entertainment business In which the humor's more apparent On the stage than in the office. It's the laugh between us — Of that I'm not forgetful — That entertains the stranger. 53