Advising Chloë

Horace: Book I, Ode 23

"Vitas hinnuleo me similis, Chloë--"

Why shun me, my Chloë? Nor pistol nor bowie
Is mine with intention to kill.
And yet like a llama you run to your mamma;
You tremble as though you were ill.

No lion to rend you, no tiger to end you,
I'm tame as a bird in a cage.
That counsel maternal can run for The Journal--
You get me, I guess. . . . You're of age.

poem by Franklin P. Adams
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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