[Editor: A poem published in Aussie: The Australian Soldiers’ Magazine, no. 3, 8 March 1918.]
Remorse.
I went with a Woman of Vice to-night
Whom I chanced to meet
In a Paris street —
She walked, admired by crowds of men.
I stared — she smiled — I stared again —
Her eyes, so challenging, whispered “Come,”
Though her red, lascivious lips were dumb.
And Wrong was victor — I murdered Right —
And went with a Woman of Vice to-night.
I thought of a girl in her home to-night —
As I sat, at ten,
In the harlot’s den —
And lost my lust for the woman’s charms.
She laughed — I frowned — she seized my arms —
A vision came, as it oft has done,
Of a future wife and a baby son,
And — “God Almighty!” I cried in fright,
“I’m here with a Woman of Vice to-night!”
James M. Ryan.
Source:
Aussie: The Australian Soldiers’ Magazine, no. 3, 8 March 1918, page 9
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