Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE DESERT DISILLUSION, by BERTON BRALEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE DESERT DISILLUSION, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Oh, ladies who seek for a peek at a sheik
Last Line: But don't go away to sahara!
Subject(s): African Americans; Sahara Desert; Negroes; American Blacks


(Wanda Hawley, the movie star, says that the real Sheik of the desert is
usually seventy and black)

Oh, ladies who seek for a peek at a Sheik
Who lives his life rudely and rawly,
A Bedouin grand in the land of the sand
Consider the words of Miss Hawley.
"A Sheik," she reports, "is a geek who's antique,
And black as a heavy cigarro,
A patriarch dark, who as you may remark
Is not like young Ramon Navarro."

How sad is the shock to the feminine flock
To find that the Sheik in his glory
Of whom writers tell is a—well, just a sell,
And only exists in a story.
The deep wrinkles streak the bleak cheek of the sheik
Who isn't a bold young deceiver,
But old as the hills. Why, he kills all the thrills
This antediluvian Beaver.

So ladies who yearn and who burn to discern
A Sheik who's a torrid bambino,
Don't roam o'er the foam but remain here at home
And worship some new Valentino.
You shriek for a Sheik who is sleek, young, unique?
You seek, very likely, to share a
Romance with a Sheik? See the films once a week
But don't go away to Sahara!





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