“Why does everyone look so unhappy!”

Bursting with heroin, a New York lady

Makes her presence known, boarding the subway.

“People, tomorrow is Valentine’s Day!”

Stumbling with sacks into a nearby seat,

She mumbles about how she’ll live on the street.

“You heard it here first – I’m never going home.”

She hates her husband, prefers life alone.

In Zurich the day after love’s big day,

I’m watching platz life, enjoying a café.

But the people the streetcars boarding and riding –

Not one person do I see happy smiling!

It’s winter, it’s raining, our coats are all dark,

With beer for diversion, life’s hardly a lark?

Though, nevertheless, there’s no yelling or stumbling,

And as for hateful husbands – which Germans are grumbling?

— Poem(s) and drawing by William Eaton