Un Ange Ivre
He came as angel and as thug, as gay,
And mad as drug-infested members in
A cholo gang. He didn’t have to play
The part of wild provincial boy akin
To Mozart crossed with Noble Savages:
That’s what he was. He was a cannibal,
Incestuous in his verse ravages.
He was to poetry as Hannibal
To Rome as it sat swilling tongues of larks.
In England Rimbaud turned from villanelles,
Revealed himself like loonies in the parks
Of London raving acid, crazy spells.
..In France he wrote about a drunken boat.
….In Britain he set modern verse afloat.