This poem is taken from PN Review 106, Volume 22 Number 2, November - December 1995.

Three Poems

Kenneth Koch
 

Tapestry
Behind, the window with a curving tree
Beckons the wanderer: he will stay here, though.
Where the old nurse has recognized his foot.
She looks up at him, then looks at his foot:
He looks down at his foot, then looks at her
As if to say, 'Tell not Penelope
Ere five grey dawns be done.' She drops his foot
Into the water, and he rises then,
Stands on that foot and on the other one
And moves, by process of replacement of
One foot in given space by other foot
With body tilted slightly forward and
The head alert, eyes, nostrils, for what snares
Or stones may lie in path. In this way, walking,
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