SYPHILIS

SYPHILIS
(After reading Isaac Babel's story "Guy De Maupassant")
De Maupassaunt died at forty three
Crawling on hands and knees,
Eating his own shit,
His syphyllitic brain raddled, shrunk;
Allready dead, and gabbling
His fear of death,
He died.
Stumbling and falling
Sentient human beast,
Zek at haulage,
In artic temperatures,
On scraps and cabbage soup,
Issac Babel , the unhorsed Cossac Jew,
Died at forty five.
Past master of the 'Genre of silence",
He was destroyed by Stalin,
Whom Trotsky called
The syphyllis of the revolution.
He knew,
Disease made conscious of itself,
He knew
That to be audibly silent is
To shout and go on shouting
And shouting, until
You are made to scream out loud in a different key.