Explore "Sympathetic Portrait of a Child" by William Carlos Williams on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The murderer's little daughter / who is barely ten years old / jerks her shoulders / right and left / so as to catch a glimpse of me / without turning round.
Her skinny little arms / wrap themselves / this way then that / reversely about her body!
Nervously / she crushes her straw hat / about her eyes / and tilts her head / to deepen the shadow -- / smiling excitedly!
As best as she can / she hides herself / in the full sunlight / her cordy legs writhing / beneath the little flowered dress / that leaves them bare / from mid-thigh to ankle -- / Why has she chosen me / for the knife / that darts along her smile?