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