Ode To Victor Hugo (53) the Miserable penury Poem by Freeyad Ibrahim

Penury

By Freeyad Ibrahim

Fantine tried to find work as a servant
But no one would take her
She did piecework stitching of shirts
for soldiers of the garrison

An old woman who lived in the house
Taught her the art of living in Penury:
There are two stages:
Living on little
And living on nothing,
They are like two rooms
The first dark,
The second pitch black!

Fantine learned how to dispense
Entirely with fire in winter
Like a tame bird
how to eat a handful of seed a day
How to turn a petticoat into a blanket
And a blanket into a petticoat
And how to save candles
by eating by the light from the window.

And she was unhappy
And the blessing of her unhappiness
is that she ate less!
&
Freyad Hugo
(Dutch writer, novelist, translator, political analyst, columnist, philosopher, thinker, poet)