25. The Rear Porches of an Apartment-Building by Maxwell Bodenheim. Monroe, Harriet, ed. 1917. The New Poetry: An Anthology

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

25. The Rear Porches of an Apartment-Building

By Maxwell Bodenheim


A SKY that has never known sun, moon or stars,
A sky that is like a dead, kind face,
Would have the color of your eyes,
O servant-girl, singing of pear-trees in the sun,
And scraping the yellow fruit you once picked	5
When your lavender-white eyes were alive….
On the porch above you are two women,
Whose faces have the color of brown earth that has never felt rain.
The still wet basins of ponds that have been drained
Are their eyes.	10
They knit gray rosettes and nibble cakes….
And on the top-porch are three children
Gravely kissing each others’ foreheads—
And an ample nurse with a huge red fan….

The passing of the afternoon to them	15
Is but the lengthening of blue-black shadows on brick walls.