Maxwell Bodenheim. The Window-washers. Harriet Monroe, ed. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912-22

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22.

The Window-washers

By Maxwell Bodenheim


From “Sketches in Color” KNEELING on high, flimsy scaffoldings,
Their lives measured by the strength of ropes,
The window-washers liquidly mumble little songs,
That are scooped away by the running air
As flowers are swept up by racing children….	5

They descended, men whose skin is close over their bones,
And whose hair is scant.

“Why have you grinning faces of wood,
You who have been carved by the white sword of the wind?”
But the window-washers stared and tapped their foreheads,	10
And trudged off to drink much beer.