Ode To Victor Hugo (3) -The 'miserable' Fantine Has To Pay Poem by Freeyad Ibrahim

The 'Miserable' Fantine has to pay

by Freeyad Ibrahim

From poverty and need
Fantine suffered indeed
She got nothing and got
Yet a mouth to feed

As a pauper she crouched
ever lower
No longer possessed a bed
Her cloth-case with no drawer
Her blanket being her ceiling
Her mattress was her floor
Her bed room with no window
But a broken rusty door

She coughed fiercely the whole night
Her once moon-face no more bright

The second- hand dealer badgered her
The innkeeper who fed her Cossette
Asked her for 100 francs to pay
Her landlord whom she owed rent
Fiercely demanded his rent and said:

"You are still young and pretty
You can pay me out your beauty."

Her beauty too was against her.
&
O monsieur Mr. HUGO
I feel as "miserable" as Fantine
You are lamenting Léopoldine
and make me weep for Fantine

*
Freyad Hugo
Heerenveen
May,2020