I walked down Fifth Avenue the other day <br />(In the languid summertime everybody strolls down <br />Fifth Avenue); <br />And I passed women, dainty in their filmy frocks, <br />And much bespatted men with canes. <br />And great green busses lumbered past me, <br />And impressive limousines, and brisk little 'lectrics. <br /> <br />I walked down Fifth Avenue the other day, <br />And the sunshine smiled at me, <br />And something, deep in my heart, burst into song. <br />And then, all at once, I saw her - <br />A woman with painted lips and rouge-touched <br />cheeks - <br />Standing in front of a jeweler's window. <br />She was looking at diamonds - <br />A tray of great blue-white diamonds - <br />And I saw a flame leap out of her eyes to meet them <br />(Greedy eyes they were, and cold, like too-perfect <br />jewels); <br />And I realized, for the first time, <br />That diamonds weren't always pretty. <br /> <br />And then I SAW THE OTHER ONE: <br />A thin little girl looking into a florist's shop <br />At a fragrant mass of violets, dew-purple and fresh. <br />She carried a huge box on her arm, <br />And a man, passing, said loudly, <br />'I guess somebody's hat'll be late today!' <br />And the thin little girl flushed and hurried on, <br />But not before I had seen the tenderness in her eyes - <br />The tenderness that real women show <br />When they look at vast rolling hills, or flowers, or <br />very small pink babies. <br /> <br />I walked down Fifth Avenue the other day. <br />(All the world walks, leisurely, down Fifth Avenue <br />in the summertime.)<br /><br />Margaret Elizabeth Sangster<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/on-fifth-avenue/
