Edna St. Vincent Millay - From a Very Little Sphinx lyrics

I Come along in then, little girl! Or else stay out! But in the open door she stands, And bites her lip and twists her hands, And stares upon me, trouble-eyed: " Mother, " she says, " I can't decide! I can't decide! " II Oh, burdock, and you other dock, That have ground coffee for your seeds, And lovely long thin daisies, dear — She said that you are weeds! She said, " Oh, what a fine bouquet! " But afterwards I heard her say, " She's always dragging in those weeds. " III Everybody but just me Despises burdocks. Mother, she Despises 'em the most because They stick so to my socks-and drawers. But father, when he sits on some, Can't speak a decent word for 'em. IV I know a hundred ways to die. I've often thought I'd try one: Lie down beneath a motor truck Some day when standing by one. Or throw myself from off a bridge — Except such things must be So hard upon the scavengers And men that clean the sea. I know some poison I could drink. I've often thought I'd taste it. But mother bought it for the sink, And drinking it would waste it. V Look, Edwin! Do you see that boy Talking to the other boy? No, over there by those two men — Wait, don't look now — now look again. No, not the one in navy-blue; That's the one he's talking to. Sure you see him? Striped pants? Well, he was born in Paris, France. VI All the grown-up people say, " What, those ugly thistles? Mustn't touch them! Keep away! Prickly! Full of bristles! " Yet they never make me bleed Half so much as roses! Must be purple is a weed, And pink and white is posies. VII Wonder where this horseshoe went. Up and down, up and down, Up and past the monument, Maybe into town. Wait a minute. " Horseshoe, How far have you been? " Says it's been to Salem And halfway to Lynn. Wonder who was in the team. Wonder what they saw. Wonder if they pa**ed a bridge — Bridge with a draw. Says it went from one bridge Straight upon another. Says it took a little girl Driving with her mother.