Ballet
Are you not weary,
great gold cross
shining in the wind —
are you not weary
of seeing the stars
turning over you
and the sun
going to his rest
and you frozen with
a great lie
that leaves you
rigid as a knight
on a marble coffin?
— and you
higher, still,
robin,
untwisting a song
from the bare
top-twigs,
are you not
weary of labor,
even the labor of
a song?
Come down — join me
for I am lonely.
First it will be
a quiet pace
to ease our stiffness
but as the west yellows
you will be ready!
Here in the middle
of the roadway
we will fling
ourselves round
with dust likes
till we are bound in
their twisting stems!
We will tear
their flowers
with arms flashing!
And when
the astonished stars
push aside
their curtain
they will see us
fall exhausted where
wheels and
the pounding feet
of horses
will crush forth
our laughter.
———————————
William Carlos Williams
AL QUE QUIERE!
The Four Seas Company, 1917
New Directions, 2017
