The Young Housewife
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS
At ten A.M. the young housewife
moves about in negligee behind
the wooden walls of her husband's house.
I pass solitary in my car.
Then again she comes to the curb
to call the ice-man, fish-man, and stands
shy, uncorseted, tucking in
stray ends of hair, and I compare her
to a fallen leaf.
The noiseless wheels of my car
rush with a crackling sound over
dried leaves as I bow and pass smiling.
____________________
Long ago
in some school
— all girls
and let's not
get fussy —
I'd say all boys
if it wasn't
all girls
and winter
time
on my
way
to
class
I managed
to find a
leaf
often an oak
and brouht it
into the
classroom
and this went
on for 20
years the same
way asking
one of the
students to stand
on a chair
and hold the leaf
aloft as if her
arm was a
branch and when
I came to the WCW
line comparing
the housewife to
a fallen leaf
I would nod
and the student
would let the
leaf drop from
her hand and
every single
girl saw
what the poet
saw and I
loved that room
those girls
that moment
that leaf
that poet
that poem
and each
year a
different
leaf
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