11. They Buy With an Eye to Looks

THE FINE cloth of your love might be a fabric of Egypt,

Something Sinbad, the sailor, took away from robbers,

Something a traveler with plenty of money might pick up

And bring home and stick on the walls and say:

“There’s a little thing made a hit with me

When I was in Cairo—I think I must see Cairo again some day.”

So there are cornice manufacturers, chewing gum kings,

Young Napoleons who corner eggs or corner cheese,

Phenoms looking for more worlds to corner,

And still other phenoms who lard themselves in

And make a killing in steel, copper, permanganese,

And they say to random friends in for a call:

“Have you had a look at my wife? Here she is.

Haven’t I got her dolled up for fair?”

O-ee! the fine cloth of your love might be a fabric of Egypt.