July in Vallombrosa by Mina Loy — Read

Old lady sitting still / Pine trees standing quite still / Sisters of mercy / whispering / Oust the Dryad / O consecration of forest / To the uneventful / I cannot imagine anything / Less disputably respectable / Than prolonged invalidism in Italy / At the beck / Of a British practitioner / Of all permissible pastimes / Attendant upon chastity / The one with which you can most efficiently insult / Life / Is your hobby of collecting death-beds / Blue Nun / So wrap the body in flannel and wool / Of superior quality from the Anglo-American / Until that ineffable moment / When Rigor Mortis / Divests it of its innate impurity / While round the hotel / Wanton Italian matrons / Discuss the better business of bed-linen / To regular puncture of needles / The old lady has a daughter / Who has been spent / In chasing moments from one room to another / When the essence of an hour / Was in its passing / With the passionate breath / Of the bronchitis kettle / And her last little lust / Lost itself in a saucer of gruel / But all this moribund stuff / Is not wasted / For there is always Nature / So its expensive upkeep / Goes to support / The loves / Of head-waiters