The Brassiere Factory

By Kenneth Koch 1925–2002 Kenneth Koch

Is the governor falling

From a great height?

Arm in arm we fled the brassiere factory,

The motion-boat stayed on the shore!

I saw how round its bottom was

As you walked into southern France—

Upon the light hair of an arm

Cigar bands lay!

I kissed you then. Oh is my bar

The insect of your will? The water rose,

But will the buffalo on

The nickel yet be still?

For how can windows hold out the light

In your eyes!

Darling, we fled the brassiere factory

In forty-eight states,

Arm in arm,

When human beings hung on us

And you had been arrested by the cloths

Were used in making, and I said, “The Goths

Know such delight,” but still we fled, away

Into a dinner atmosphere

From all we knew, and fall asleep this day.

O maintenance men, with cruel eyes,

Then arm in arm we fled the listless factory!

The music changed your fingers’ ends to pearl,

I punched you, you foolish girl,

For thanks to the metronome we got out alive, in the air

Where the sun filled us with cruelty!

There’s what to do

Except despair, like pages! and laugh

Like prawns, about the sea!

Oh arm in arm we fled the industry

Into an earth of banks

And foolish tanks, for what bare breasts might be.

Kenneth Koch, “The Brassiere Factory” from The Collected Poems of Kenneth Koch, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Copyright © 2006 by Kenneth Koch. Reprinted by permission of the Kenneth Koch Literary Estate.

Source: The Collected Poems of Kenneth Koch (Alfred A. Knopf, 2006)

Biography

Prize-winning author Kenneth Koch published numerous collections of poetry, avant-garde plays, and short fiction while also serving as one of the nation's best-known creative writing teachers during a career that spanned over five decades. Associated with the New York School of poetry for most of his career, Koch used surrealism, satire, irony, and an element of surprise in many of his poems. However, "his satires are more than . . .

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