Explore "Unmentionable" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
There is a thing of which I fain would speak, / Yet shun the deed; / Lest hot disgust flush the averted cheek / Of those who read.
And yet it is as common in our sight / As dust or grass; / Loathed by the lifted skirt, the tiptoe light, / Of those who pass.
We say no word, but the big placard rests / Frequent in view, / To sicken those who do not with requests / Of those who do.
"Gentlemen will not," the mild placards say. / They read with scorn. / "Gentlemen must not"-they defile the way / Of those who warn.
On boat and car the careful lady lifts / Her dress aside; / If careless-think, fair traveller, of the gifts / Of those who ride!
On every hall and sidewalk, floor and stair, / Where man's at home, / This loathsomeness is added to the care / Of those who come.
As some foul slug his trail of slime displays / On leaf and stalk, / These street-beasts make a horror in the ways / Of those who walk.
We cannot ask reform of those who do- / They can't or won't. / We can express the scorn, intense and true, / Of those who don't.