Peggy Stebbins Nelson
Poems Undated Poems Some Poems More Poems Short Stories Thirteen Broken Glasses Beauties and the Beast The Housekeeper’s Lover The Lady Likes Green Some Ladies are Made, Not Born Momma…
Thirteen Broken Glasses
The mirrored dressing-room reflected the images of thirteen beautiful women. They presented to the eyes a sight well-worth seeing, thirteen show girls preparing for the first act. Sitting in various…
The Spring
Spring is here! So what! Nature is calling, but I'm no gypsy -- at least not this year. I'm going to plant my feet onto the warm city pavements, and…
The Lady Likes Green
I could have gleefully strangled Theresa for asking me to meet her at Cleo Clancy's apartment. I took my fury out on the doorbell. Nothing annoys me more than to…
The Housekeeper’s Lover
Abbot Bailey had never noticed the eyes of Greta, the housemaid, before. But the mattresses in Henry Howe Hall were no lawns of feather, so he had bet Hank Williams…
The Eternal Curve
The Eternal Curve (or A Pound of Flesh) -- the play Characters: Lavinia Luce, Sally Simpson, Marcy Young, Betsy Treadway, Junie Nestor, and Grace Plankhurst Act I Announcer: (a woman,…
The Cats
Was it Carlyle who said, "Philanthropists should mind their own business"? Then, it was I, especially if it should happen to be a cat's business. What noble uncomplaining creatures, I…
Taxicab Blues
There he sat in his orange and black taxicab. His big homely head, preceded by an enormous fist, was thrust though an open window. He was bellowing belligerently after a…
Some Poems — by Peggy Stebbins Nelson
Flight Unafraid, he flies Into strange skies; Unrehearsed, he sings Of sweet springs; Unattended he dies While no one cries; A tiny bird Once heard By God. …
Some Ladies are Made, Not Born
I never do things the easy way. It cost me mortification of the flesh and damage to my pride to learn even the first rules of being a lady. I…
Remembering by Fives
Memories seem to favor certain images, especially when the memories are of places one has visited. I have found that no matter what country I have traveled, there are usually…
My New York
As far as I'm concerned, New York City starts at Washington Square and leaves off at One Hundred and Sixteenth Street. There is a strange land to the north called…
More Poems — by Peggy Stebbins Nelson
One in Many One sun, many rays, One time, many days, One world, many lands, One work, many hands. One moon, many tides, One truth, many sides, One God,…
Momma Got Gypped
I was eight years old. All I wanted from life was an arm chair, a fairy tale, and sour pickles. But no, little girls should be accomplished and I was…
Mind in the Unmaking
I don't know why philosophers are always so concerned with my mind. It's getting so that I can't pick up a book without being told how to think. One of…
It’s Wonderful
Sometimes Radio City Music Hall gets to be tiresome. All is so perfect -- the best mechanical stage in the world, the best dancers, the best pictures, and the very…
Irish Luck
Mrs. O'Leary flipped little Michael O'Leary Junior around on his back and removed a large safety pin from his wet sarong. That little Michael was not the first heir to…
Undated Poems by Peggy Stebbins Nelson
Just So Much Do not snatch up more than you can hold,Troubles, joy or yellow gold.Tumble trouble in time's waiting lapLet unborn days solutions unwrap. Taste joy with lips of…
Cocktail Myths
They used to call them teas. Now they ask you to a cocktail party. A cocktail party is the most convenient excuse for getting rid of a case of bad…
Beauties and the Beast
Five hundred hopeful feminine eyes looked into his. He felt his own power. He saw himself as some kind of god. He knew that in the brains above those searching…
A Woman’s Privilege
Henry Rich, having rid the hotel suite of reporters by not asking them to have a drink, was taking inventory with the shining assistance of the full-length closet-door mirror. As…