Kings and Curiosities

Danse Russe

If when my wife is sleeping

and the baby and Kathleen

are sleeping

and the sun is a flame-white disc

in silken mists

above shining trees, —

if I in my north room

dance naked, grotesquely

before my mirror

waving my shirt round my head

and singing softly to myself:

“I am lonely, lonely.

I was born to be lonely.

I am best so!”

If I admire my arms, my face,

my shoulders, flanks, buttocks,

against the yellow drawn shades, —

Who shall say I am not

the happy genius of my household?

~William Carlos Williams