Elizabeth Madox Roberts

From “Talk from the Dust”

WE like to listen to her dress;

It makes a whisper by her feet.

Her little pointed shoes are gray;

She hardly lets them touch the street.

Sometimes she has a crumpled fan.

Her hat is silvered on the crown,

And there are roses by the brim

That nod and tremble up and down.

She comes along the pavement walk,

And in a moment she is gone.

She hardly ever looks at us,

But once she smiled and looked at John.

And so we run to see her pass

And watch her through the fence, and I

Can hear the others whispering,

“Miss Josephine is going by.”