XI (The Right of Way)

From Off the Road Database

Bibliographic Information
Author Williams, William Carlos
Genre Poetry
Journal or Book Spring and All
Publisher Frontier Press
Year of Publication 1923
Pages 49-50
Additional information -


In passing with my mind
on nothing in the world


but the right of way
I enjoyed on the road by

roadlaw


virtue of the law –
I saw

law


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 –

speed


Why bother where I went?
for I went spinning on the

driving


four wheels of my car
along the wet road until

carcar partroadroad condition


I saw a girl with one leg
over the rail of a balcony