Monday Poem; SINDHI WOMAN BY JON STALLWORTHY

Barefoot through the bazaar,

and with the same undulant

grace

as the cloth blown back from her

face,

she glides with a stone jar

high on her head

and not a ripple in her tread.

Watching her cross erect

stones, garbage, excrement, and

crumbs

of glass in the Karachi slums,

I, with my stoop, reflect

they stand most straight

who learn to walk beneath a

weight.

Our poems this week come from Jon Stallworthy's `Rounding the Horn: Collected Poems' (Carcanet Press, pounds 14.95). This poem first appeared in `Out of Bounds' (1963)