Malcolm Lowry(1909–1957)
Eye-Opener
How like a man, is Man, who rises late
And gazes on his unwashed dinner plate
And gazes on the bottles, empty too,
All gulphed in last night's loud long how-do-you-do,
5 —Although one glass yet holds a gruesome bait—
How like to Man is this man and his fate—
Still drunk and stumbling through the rusty trees
To breakfast on stale rum sardines and peas.
1962, 1992