“Operating Live on Poetry”
—Delahaye in Divagations
So. Just another boozing, druggy day.
That’s how French poets’ love affairs are spent.
They sit with friends in an ivre café,
And Rimbaud says, “Try an experiment,
Hommes. Put your hands on the table.” They do.
He pulls a knife out, then cuts Verlaine’s wrists,
Deeply. The others save their hands (as you
Do)—as a coward puts away his fists.
Verlaine and Rimbaud get up giggling, leave
The ones who aren’t in love. These two are brave,
Go to an alley for Paul to receive
Two gruesome wounds to his thigh. Love is grave.
..The lad thought, flashing, Love should not refrain.
….He wrote, it’s “a joy that remains in pain.”