Dora Williams

When Reuben Pantier ran away and threw me         I went to Springfield. There I met a lush,         Whose father just deceased left him a fortune.         He married me when drunk.         My life was wretched.         A year passed and one day they found him dead.         That made me rich. I moved on to Chicago.         After a time met Tyler Rountree, villain.         I moved on to New York. A gray-haired magnate         Went mad about me - so another fortune.         He died one night right in my arms, you know.         (I saw his purple face for years thereafter. )         There was almost a scandal.         I moved on, This time to Paris. I was now a woman,         Insidious, subtle, versed in the world and rich.         My sweet apartment near the Champs Elysees         Became a center for all sorts of people,         Musicians, poets, dandies, artists, nobles,         Where we spoke French and German, Italian, English.         I wed Count Navigato, native of Genoa.         We went to Rome. He poisoned me, I think.         Now in the Campo Santo overlooking         The sea where young Columbus dreamed new worlds,         See what they chiseled: "Contessa Navigato         Implora eterna quiete."