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Kitty. Sixteen,5′ 11″,White,Prostitute

E. E. Cummings

“kitty”. sixteen,5′ 11″,white,prostitute.

ducking always the touch of must and shall,
whose slippery body is Death’s littlest pal,

skilled in quick softness.  Unspontaneous.  cute,

the signal perfume of whose unrepute
focusses in the sweet slow animal
bottomless eyes importantly banal,

Kitty. a whore. Sixteen
                            you corking brute
amused from time to time by clever drolls
fearsomely who do keep their sunday flower.
The babybreasted broad “kitty” twice eight

—beer nothing,the lady’ll have a whiskey-sour—

whose least amazing smile is the most great
common divisor of unequal souls.
Online text © 1998-2009 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From Tulips and Chimneys | New York: Thomas Seltzer, 1923
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