William Carlos Williams, "This Is Just to Say"

Included in the Seagull Reader

For Passengers

(a textual marriage between two found texts:
"This Is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams
and "U.S. Planes falling apart — in flight" by
Ford Fessenden in Newsday.)

This is just to say
     for passengers:
the plums
     aboard the planes, loose parts
that were in the icebox,
     can sometimes be deadly

     Such failures have been
(and which you were)
     the cause of
probably saving
     several major crashes
for breakfast.

Forgive me,
     but mechanical failure of any kind—
they were delicious.
     Ranks
so sweet,
     far below human error,
and so cold
     as a cause of crashes.

—by Greg Ritter

 



Icon Directory
Seagull and Portable icon In The Portable Intro to Literature
Seagull icon In The Seagull Reader
Portalble Intro to Lit icon In Portable & The Seagull Reader