Ladies and gents in rows of grim portraits
On a high wall of your town house,
Over a small cross and a music box
That nowadays plays only silence
To an audience of draped chairs and sofas,
Do you hear the homeless woman
Comfort a small dog by her side
As she spreads rags for their bed
Beneath the front steps your servants
Used to scrub daily for dirty footprints?
—Charles Simic
Charles Simic has been Poet Laureate of the United States and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. His latest Book is Come Closer and Listen.
