Sonnet

Reality V

by E.E. Cummings

"kitty".  sixteen, 5' 1", white, prostitute.

ducking always the touch of must and shall,

whose slippery body is Death's littlest pal,

skilled in quick softness.  Unspontaneous.  cute.

5  

the signal perfume of whose unrepute

focusses in the sweet slow animal

bottomless eyes importantly banal,

Kitty.  a whore.  Sixteen

you corking brute

10  

amused from time to time by clever drolls

fearsomely who do keep their sunday flower.

The babybreasted broad "kitty" twice eight

—beer nothing, the lady'll have a whiskey-sour—

whose least amazing smile is the most great

common divisor of unequal souls.








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Transcribed and formatted for Internet reading, with addition of line numbers, from the 1923 (Thomas Seltzer, Inc.) hardcover edition of Tulips and Chimneys by E.E. Cummings.