Oh the innocent girl
in her maiden teens
knows perfectly well
what everything means.
If she didn’t, she oughter;
it’s a silly shame
to pretend that your daughter
is a blank at the game.
Anyhow she despises
your fool pretence
that she’s just a sheep
and can’t see through the fence.
Oh every lass
should hear all the rough words
and laugh, let them pass;
and be used to the turds
as well as the grass;
and know that she’s got
in herself a small treasure
that may yet give a lot
of genuine pleasure
to a decent man;
and beware and take care
of it while she can.
If she never knows
what is her treasure,
she grows and throws
it away, and you measure
the folly of that
from her subsequent woes.
Oh the innocent maid,
when she knows what’s what
from the top of her head
to the tips of her toes
is more innocent far
than the blank-it-out girl
who gets into the car
and just fills you with hell.