"Is it dirty? Does it look dirty?"

"Song" by Frank O'Hara

Is it dirty
does it look dirty
that's what you think of in the city

does it just seem dirty
that's what you think of in the city
you don't refuse to breathe do you

someone comes along with a very bad character
he seems attractive. is he really. yes very
he's attractive as his character is bad. is it. yes

that's what you think of in the city
run your finger along your no-moss mind
that's not a thought that's soot

and you take a lot of dirt off someone
is the character less bad. no. it improves constantly
you don't refuse to breathe do you

-from Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara (1964).

Here is a recording of Frank O'Hara reading it. I like the way he reads it, so conversationally and casually emotively, but it's much different than the way I read it off the page. It seems so much flatter on the page, uninflected--like a thought.