MELANCHOLY Poem by William Cliff

(on a drawing by Frédéric Pajak)
when I was a child all alone in the country
and the gaping sky fell on my head
and the surrounding sea murmured to come
slowly to enclose me in its polluted tide

when in my absurd grubby shorts
I showed my knock knees and was
an insect lost in the limitless bad temper
of the evil adults who spat out their blasphemies

then I stopped for a moment at the edge of the sea
and covered my face with my hand to shut out the sight
of the horror of being born on this earth
and of always waiting for the morning light