Hyde’s mill women often resembled Picasso’s
Two Women Running on the Beach from 1922
Except ours are racing from right to left
And not from left to right. Picasso enlarged
And redeployed the image two years later
And used it as a stage curtain for the Ballets
Russes, but all we need to concern ourselves
With is their direction. Hyde’s are running
To the west, Picasso’s to the east. One of them
Is bigger than the other, but not substantially
Hyde had 765,000 spindles in 1920
722,000 in 1930
It was a difference, but not enough
To push us towards Soviet-style Communism
.
Steven Taylor
.