London Crossfigured
London
crossfigured
creeping with trams
and the artists on sundays
in the summer
all ‘tracking Nature’
in the suburbs
It
could have been anyplace
but it wasn’t
It was
London
and when someone shouted over
that they had got a model
I ran out across the court
but then
when the model started taking off
her clothes
there was nothing underneath
I mean to say
she took off her shoes
and found no feet
took off her top
and found no tit
under it
and I must say she did look
a bit
ASTOUNDED
just standing there
looking down
at where her legs were
not
But so very carefully then
she put her clothes back on
and as soon as she was dressed again
completely
she was completely
all right
Do it again! cried someone
rushing for his easel
But she was afraid to
and gave up modelling
and forever after
slept in her clothes
Copyright Credit: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, “London Crossfigured” from These Are My Rivers: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 1955 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation, www.wwnorton.com/nd/welcome.htm.
Source: These Are My Rivers: New and Selected Poems (New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1993)