1930′s

                         I

Thus
Hides the
Parts—the prudery
Of Frigidaire, of
Soda-jerking—

Thus
Above the
Plane of lunch, of wives,
Removes itself

(As soda-jerking from
The private act
Of
Cracking eggs);
Big-Business.

                         II

The knowledge not of sorrow, you were saying, but of boredom,
Is of—aside from reading speaking smoking—
Of what Maude Blessingbourne it was, wished to know when, having risen,
“Approached the window as if to see what really was going on”;
And saw rain falling, in the distance more slowly,
The road clear from her past the window-glass—
Of the world, weather-swept, with which one shares the century.

—George Oppen