Riverbank Scavengers
after François Villon
Rags and bones on the riverbank where the city’s filth collects I search for scraps to sell for a coin or a swallow of wine
In the mud I find a broken shoe a rusty hook a tangled fishing line the discarded things of men who’ve given up or been forgotten
A dog with mange and a twisted ear competes with me for scraps I kick at him he growls and slinks away I’m left to my miserable findings
I took the theme of poverty and the struggles of the marginalized from François Villon, and applied it to a subject he might have recognized but not written about, using his characteristic short sentences and sparse punctuation. I also tried to capture his sudden shifts from cynicism to vulnerability.