posted under: penny for the old guy

a penny for the old guy 2

Vienna, 1933. Bill Brandt.
bill brandt

The Hollow Men
Mistah Kurtz-he dead
A penny for the Old Guy

I.
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
Remember us-if at all-not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.

remember, remember the 5th of november

‘A penny for the Old Guy, miss?’ he asked as I exited Shepherd’s Bush tube station. The small, faceless effigy sat a few feet away with the boy’s friend, who seemed a silent partner in the enterprise.