To Alice -- Sit -- by -- the -- Hour

Lady in the blue kimono, you that live across the way, / One may see you gazing, gazing, gazing all the livelong day, / Idly looking out your window from your vantage point above. / Are you convalescent, lady? Are you worse? Are you in love?

Ever gazing, as you hang there on the little window seat, / Into flats across the way or down upon the prosy street. / Can't you rent a pianola? Can't you iron, sew, or cook? / Write a letter, bake a pudding, make a bed or read a book?

Tell me of the fascination you indubitably find / In the "High Cash Cloe's! " man's holler, in the hurdy -- gurdy grind. / Are your Spanish castles blue prints? Are you waiting for a knight / To descend upon your fastness and to save you from your plight?

Lady in the blue kimono, idle, mollycoddle dame, / Does your doing nothing never make you feel the blush of shame? / As you sit and stare and ditto, not a single thing to do, / Lady in the blue kimono, lady, how I envy you!