A Pushcart at the Curb

E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)
Books by John Dos Passos NOVELS: Three Soldiers One Man's Initiation Streets of Night (In Preparation) ESSAYS: Rosinante to the Road Again POEMS: A Pushcart at the Curb
A PUSHCART AT THE CURB JOHN DOS PASSOS
BY JOHN DOS PASSOS
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY PUBLISHERS NEW YORK Copyright, 1922, By George H. Doran Company
A Pushcart at the Curb. I Printed in the United States of America TO THE MEMORY OF WRIGHT McCORMICK WHO TUMBLED OFF A MOUNTAIN IN MEXICO
My verse is no upholstered chariot Gliding oil-smooth on oiled wheels, No swift and shining modern limousine, But a pushcart, rather.
A crazy creaking pushcart, hard to push Round corners, slung on shaky patchwork wheels, That jolts and jumbles over the cobblestones Its very various lading:
A lading of Spanish oranges, Smyrna figs, Fly-specked apples, perhaps of the Hesperides, Curious fruits of the Indies, pepper-sweet ... Stranger, choose and taste.
Dolo
For permission to reprint certain of the poems in this volume, thanks are due The Bookman , The Dial , Vanity Fair , The Measure , and The New York Evening Post .