A BITTER BALLAD
Little boy smoking cigarette
come blow up your horn
little boy jabbering
old man's langauge.
He puffs lustily,
ignorant,
burning his body away.
Here is a picture you can paint:
little boy smoking
mixing images from gutter-clay.
Bits of anger, evil smelling curses,
the father clouts his head.
Old man cries over
fragment bowl:
His son can only have
the symptoms of a man.
Edwin Thumboo