Death the Barber

Of death
the barber
the barber
talked to me

cutting my
life with
sleep to trim
my hair –

It’s just
a moment
he said, we die
every night –

And of
the newest
ways to grow
hair on

bald death –
I told him
of the quartz
lamp

and of old men
with third
sets of teeth
to the cue

of an old man
who said
at the door –
Sunshine today!

for which
death shaves
him twice
a week

—

William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)

William Carlos Williams, Collected Poems, 1909-1939; Carcanet Press, Manchester; ISBN 1857545222
William Carlos Williams, Collected Poems, 1939-1962; Carcanet Press, Manchester; ISBN 1857545230