“Old age is
a flight of small
cheeping birds
skimming
bare trees
above a snow glaze.
Gaining and failing
they are buffeted
by a dark wind —
But what?
On harsh weedstalks
the flock has rested —
the snow
is covered
with broken
seed husks
and the wind tempered
with a shrill
piping of plenty.”

—  William Carlos Williams, book Sour Grapes

"To Awaken an Old Lady", originally publised in The Dial (August 1920)
Sour Grapes (1921)

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William Carlos Williams83
American poet 1883–1963

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