Hunger

Night - and steps sound on the stoop -

for only an empty table weeps

or the wall has whispered

or the sorrow which never oversleeps

Sighed the bed? Barked the door?

Chattered the window-frame?

Are we drawn through brillaint day

into the frost, without supper?

Hunger scrabbled with dog-claws

in the twilight, it gave the sign.

(Bohuslav Reynek)

(14.6.92)