Petition to This Room, to Allow Me to Work
The weekly undoing of the house
By my cleaning woman, Frau Dingler,
Who is good and gracious,
But must, nevertheless,
Set me wandering from room to room
In search of an upright chair
Free of dustpan and cloth,
I have escaped this morning,
Fleeing upstairs to this
Forgotten room at the top-
A student's room once,
Narrow, with bed and desk,
Wardrobe, wash basin, and single window,
Unoccupied since we moved here-
And brought with me
What I thought necessary,
As notebook, typewriter, cigarettes
(But forgot the ashtray).
New rooms make me uneasy.
I listen and prod
To know if this one will be good,
Fruitful, quiet-a place to work.
Children somewhere
Are playing in sing-song,
And garbage cans clank.
The room is cold,
Though the radiator gives off heat.
Little, bare, studious room,
Be kind and grant my prayer!
Enclose my nervousness
With whatever you have to bless-
Height up under the roof,
Smallness, aloofness,
Since you belong to no one
Here, next to the wash-kitchen!
I come, with your permission, to brood
Like a distracted mother-bird
Some few chilly eggs into
Scraggly chicks, where others before me
Have brooded their thoughts, of which
The world took little account,
As it will of mine,
Or of the fledgling birds now
Being projected and planned for
Under the eaves outside,
Above your solitary window.
Structure
46 lines · 3 stanzas