I stopped to pick up the bagel
rolling away in the wind,
annoyed with myself
for having dropped it
as if it were a portent.
Faster and faster it rolled,
with me running after it
bent low, gritting my teeth,
and I found myself doubled over
and rolling down the street
head over heels, one complete somersault
after another like a bagel
and strangely happy with myself.

—David Ignatow

Rights & Access

from Against the Evidence: Selected Poems 1934-1994
Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, Conn.

Copyright 1993 by David Ignatow.
All rights reserved.

Reprinted by permission of Wesleyan University Press from Against the Evidence: Selected Poems 1934-1994. Copyright 1993 by David Ignatow. For further permissions information, contact Tom Radko, Director, Wesleyan University Press, tradko@wesleyan.edu

  • David Ignatow

    David Ignatow (1914–1997) authored and published over 25 books, including Living is What I Wanted: Last Poems (BOA Editions, 1999).

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