A Pushcart at the Curb

by John Dos Passos

E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net)

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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

A PUSHCART
AT THE CURB

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