Dusky Aphrodite of the Smiling Eyes
She was the loudest and the most beautiful
Her smile came from the soul
Through the eyes as much as through the mouth
A pout luscious and whole.
And I wondered what makes girls like her
Who fools like me nightly meet
Take her life in her hands
And sell her body on an Athens street.
There was a kindness about her
No cruelty, a kind of joy
I hope some day she sorts herself out
And finds herself a boy
Who till look after her and her children
And that they will not walk the streets where she has been
The Aphrodite of the Smiling Eyes
Who at most was seventeen.