Two by Tessimond

(A.S.J. Tessimond 1902-62)

If men were not striped like tigers

How much simpler if men were not striped like tigers, patched like clowns,
If alternate white and black were not further confused by greys and browns,
If people were, even at times, consistent wholes,
If the actors were rigidly typed and kept their roles,
If we were able
To classify friends, each with his label,
Each label neat
As the names of cakes or categories of meat.
But you, my dear, are a greedy bitch, yet also a sad child lost,
And you who have swindled your partners are kind to the cat,
And, in human beings, this is not this nor that quite that
And the threads are crossed
And nothing's as tidy as the mind could wish
And the human mammal is partly insect and often reptile and also fish.

The birds of sorrow (translation from the French of Jacques Prevert, Les oiseaux du souci)

Rainfall of feathers feathers of falling rain
She who loved you will never come back again
What do you want of me birds
Feathers of falling rain oh rainfall of feathers
Now that my love won't come any more I don't know any more
I don't know where I'm going and nothing is plain
Rainfall of feathers feathers of falling rain
I don't know any longer what to do
Pall of black rain of rain that falls like pain
Can it be true that never again
Pall-black feathers … Away with you swallows be off now
Get out of your nests … What's that? Not time to start yet?
To hell with time get out of this room you swallows of morning
Swallows of evening go … Go where? No no it's I who'll go
Feathers of darkness darkness of feathers I'll go go nowhere anywhere go
So stay here birds of despair
Stay … make yourselves at home