William Carlos Williams, DANSE RUSSE (original) (raw)

William Carlos Williams, "Danse Russe"

If I when my wife is sleeping

Ballet russe(photo of Adolph Bolm and Flore Revalles, taken in 1910)

and the baby and Kathleen
are sleeping
and the sun is a flame-white disc
in silken mists
above shining trees,--
if I in my north room
dance naked, grotesquely
before my mirror
waving my shirt round my head
and singing softly to myself:
"I am lonely, lonely.
I was born to be lonely,
I am best so!"
If I admire my arms, my face,
my shoulders, flanks, buttocks
again the yellow drawn shades,--

Who shall say I am not
the happy genius of my household?

[c. 1917]