The Red Dress

I always saw, I always said
  If I were grown and free,
I’d have a gown of reddest red
  As fine as you could see,

To wear out walking, sleek and slow,
  Upon a Summer day,
And there’d be one to see me so
  And flip the world away.

And he would be a gallant one,
  With stars behind his eyes,
And hair like metal in the sun,
  And lips too warm for lies.

I always saw us, gay and good,
  High honored in the town.
Now I am grown to womanhood….
  I have the silly gown.

-Dorothy Parker