Ode To Victor Hugo -69 ‘the Miserable' riff- Raff Poem by Freeyad Ibrahim

By Freeyad Ibrahim

The innkeepers, stole even the modest bag of Cossette
To the cat even the smallest mouse is better than none
The picture will be filled in later full anxiety
The couple belonged to that indeterminate layer of society
They were sandwiched between the middle and the lower classes
Yet they could not belong to one of the two classes
A new class which consisted of riff-raff
Who have risen in the world,
And more cultivated persons who have sunk.
And which combines the worst qualities of both
They were dwarfish natures capable of
Growing into monsters
If ill-chance fostered the process,
There is a seed of cruelty in the woman,
And of black guardism in the man.

Freyad Hugo
(Dutch writer, poet)