Young Woman

Naked before the glass she said,

“I see my body as no man has,

Nor any shall unless I wed

And naked in a stranger’s house

Stand timid beside his bed.

There is no pity in the flesh.”

“Or else I shall grow old,” she said,

“Alone, and change my likeliness

For a vile, slack shape, a head

Shriveled with thinking wickedness

Against the day I must be dead

And eaten by my crabbed wish.”

“One or the other way,” she said,

“How shall I know the difference,

When wrinkles come, to spinster or bride?

Whether to marry or burn is bless-

ed best, O stranger to my bed,

There is no pity in the flesh.”

Howard Nemerov was born on February 29th, 1920 in New York. He died of cancer at his home in University City, Missouri on July 5th 1991.