The old black-man showed me
how he had been shocked
in his youth
by six women, dancing
a set-dance, stark naked below
the skirts raised round
their breasts:
bellies flung forward
knees flying!
—while
his gestures, against the
tiled wall of the dingy bath-room,
swished with ecstasy to
the familiar music of
his old emotion.
Public-domain source text
Canthara
by William Carlos Williams
From Standard Ebooks · standardebooks/william-carlos-williams_poetry
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