he had broken underneath it.
too young.
I saw
the loud-mouthed slut that he had married
(quick and regretting as he married)
big-bellied year by year
A dirty whining trail of children
oppressed neglected ugly children
a sordid, cold, a squalid kitchen;
and cigarettes at three and four.
If he had been a man and growen
a hard-backed man and strong beside
he might have stood and worked to greyness
and fought his life and won his pride:
But he was just a boy, a soft one
and it had crushed him flat, unknowing.
and flat; unknowing.