“Classic Scene” — William Carlos Williams

“Classic Scene”

by

William Carlos Williams

A power-house
in the shape of
a red brick chair
90 feet high

on the seat of which
sit the figures
of two metal
stacks–aluminum–

commanding an area
of squalid shacks
side by side–
from one of which

buff smoke
streams while under
a grey sky
the other remains

passive today–

Classic Landscape, 1931 by Charles Sheeler (1883–1965)