TOM LAVELLE

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS AND THE DISHES

William Butler Yeats
as history records
never,
between the years 1889
and 1940,
washed dishes

at home
or the homes of friends.
His panoramic indifference encompassed
all meals:
equally indifferent
to the stain sticking egg to plate
and holding crumbs from toast in place,
indifferent to the rim
even the clearest soups leave in bowls.

He rarely stopped at butcher shops
or carried dead chickens by their head.

Yeats never
in his life baked bread.

After the first world war
he would not even carry his own teacup to the kitchen.