Pauca Mihi

My feet, my eyes, are not what they have been,

Nowadays I crawl by dint of an arthritis,

And see so very little, thanks to the invite

Of drinks determined after all to do me in;

My stomach, once divine and some again,

Dives down—and since when? —into pituita

Never to emerge, even not tight,

Without o many a trick required then!

Dis-cou-rage-ment, in fine! now doth commence

To invade me very seriously:

That’s enough to die of boredom truly,

Had I not this piece of fortune immense,

In such ill luck trebly now successful

To become at length a biblio-thing as well!

Paul Verlaine