The Dead Baby, William Carlos Williams
Sweep the house under the feet of the curious holiday seekers — sweep under the table and the bed the baby is dead — The mother's eyes where she sits by the window, unconsoled — have purple bags under them the father — tall, wellspoken, pitiful is the abler of these two — Sweep the house clean here is one who has gone up (though problematically) to heaven, blindly by force of the facts — a clean sweep is one way of expressing it — Hurry up! any minute they will be bringing it from the hospital — a white model of our lives a curiosity — surrounded by fresh flowers