Sufferer
by John den Boer

The man’s face is pale and blank
His hollow eyes strain to see
and I smell the odorous rank
of human mortality
Emaciated ribs jut
from the man’s sunken chest
Crimson blood drips from a cut
which yellow gangrene molests
His thin body convulses
as his swollen belly gasps
His weak heart barely pulses
as his swollen throat rasps
I watch him with contempt

but his face reveals no shame
As his bony arms attempt
to support his rakish frame
The man’s anaemic lips flutter
and his mouth, it forms a word
which his lips weakly mutter

. . . but the man cannot be heard.