Shapes of Clay

by Ambrose Bierce

ONE OF THE UNFAIR SEX

ONE OF THE UNFAIR SEX.

She stood at the ticket-seller's
Serenely removing her glove,
While hundreds of strugglers and yellers,
And some that were good at a shove,
Were clustered behind her like bats in
a cave and unwilling to speak their love.

At night she still stood at that window
Endeavoring her money to reach;
The crowds right and left, how they sinned--O,
How dreadfully sinned in their speech!
Ten miles either way they extended
their lines, the historians teach.

She stands there to-day--legislation
Has failed to remove her. The trains
No longer pull up at that station;
And over the ghastly remains
Of the army that waited and died of
old age fall the snows and the rains.