Spring and All: XI [In passing with my mind]
In passing with my mind
on nothing in the world
but the right of way
I enjoy on the road by
virtue of the law —
I saw
an elderly man who
smiled and looked away
to the north past a house —
a woman in blue
who was laughing and
leaning forward to look up
into the man’s half
averted face
and a boy of eight who was
looking at the middle of
the man’s belly
at a watchchain —
The supreme importance
of this nameless spectacle
sped me by them
without a word —
Why bother where I went ?
for I went spinning on the
four wheels of my car
along the wet road until
I saw a girl with one leg
over the rail of a balcony
William Carlos Williams, "XI [In passing with my mind]" from Spring and All. Copyright © 1923 by William Carlos Williams. Reprinted by permission of Public Domain.
