Dorothy Parker

The Red Dress

I always say, I always said
   If I were grown and free,
I’d have a gown of reddest red
   As fine as you could see,
 
To wear out walking, sleek and slow,
   Upon a Summer day,
And there’d be one to see me so,
   And flip the world away.
 
And he would be a gallant one,
   With stars behind his eyes,
And hair like metal in the sun,
   And lips too warm for lies.
 
I always saw us, gay and good,
   High honored in the town.
Now I am grown to womanhood . . .
   I have the silly gown.
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