XXIV

Life is not worth living now
I'm the saddest of the whole race
Since I took up that double vow
And turned a double coalface.

How can I regard my life
As anything but specious?
I could not foresee endless strife
Like the sightless seer Tiresias

In drinking I shall end my days
And thus sew up the hemends
I'll exist in a drunken blaze
O Sweet Delirium Tremens.

I've bought the meths, the matches too
Combustion is my thesis
I'll show them all, both Sal and Prue
(Old flames!) my own Nemesis.

I'll drink it and I'll light the flame
Let sabotage be praised!
No aid for those who pile up shame
In one sense am I razed

What bigamist thrives
What saboteur gains
For one such as I
What laughter remains?

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The End.