Le Médicin Malgré Lui

Le MEDECIN MALGRE LUI

Oh I suppose I should

Wash the walls of my office,

Polish the rust from

My instruments and keep them

Definitely in order;

Build shelves in

The little laboratory ;

Empty out the old stains,

Clean the bottles

And refill them; buy

Another lens; put

My journals on edge instead of

Letting them lie flat

In heaps-then begin

Ten years back and

Gradually

Read them to date,

Cataloguing important

Articles for ready reference.

I suppose I should

Read the new books.

If to this I added

‚A bill at the tailor's

And the cleaner's

And grew a decent beard

And cultivated a look

Of importance-

Who can tell? I might be

A credit to my Lady Happiness

And never think anything

But a white thought!

William Carlos Williams

PLUMS

It is a waste of time to talk to my cousin about his plums,

Though I know-

standing on the path with the sun in my hair

I make a sufficiently pleasing picture.