It wasn’t love, Johnny

You were after cash, Johnny

But it was just your lips, Johnny, I was staring at.

You wanted it all, Johnny

And I gave you more, Johnny

Take that pipe out of your mouth, you rat.

Surabaya-Johnny, why must you be such a cad?

Surabaya-Johnny, oh God and I love you so bad.

Surabaya-Johnny, ah why should I be sad?

You have no heart, Johnny, and I love you so bad.

3

I hadn’t the wit to wonder

How you’d come by that particular name

But all along the coastline

You had a certain sort of fame.

So one morning in our tuppenny lodgings

I’ll be listening to the crash of the sea

You’ll be off with no explanations

And your boat will be down at the quay.

You have no heart, Johnny

You are nothing but a heel, Johnny

And now you’re leaving, Johnny, and how about that!

But I love you still, Johnny

Like the very first day, Johnny

Take that pipe out of your mouth, you rat.

Surabaya-Johnny, why must you be such a cad?

Surabaya-Johnny, oh God and I love you so bad.

Surabaya-Johnny, ah why should I be sad?

You have no heart, Johnny, and I love you so bad.

THE GUEST

Nightfall, but there’s much still she wants told

Quickly he spills out seven years, nigh on

And hears in the yard a chicken being killed

And knows the household only had that one

He will eat little of its flesh next day

Help yourself, she says. Still full, he answers her

Where were you yesterday before you came?—In safety

And where is it you’ve come from?—Town. Not far.

Then quickly he gets to his feet. Time flies!

Smiling he says to her: Farewell.—And you?

He hesitates, lets fall his hand, she sees

Dust on his shoes of streets she does not know.

HE WAS EASY TO GET . . .

He was easy to get.

It was possible on the second evening.

I waited till the third (and knew

I was taking a risk).

Then he said, laughing: it’s the bath salts

Not your hair.

But he was easy to get.

For a month I left him straight after making love.

Every third day I stayed away.

I never wrote.

But store up snow in a pot

It gets dirty all the same.

I did more than I could

When it was already over.

I threw out the bitches who were sleeping with him

As though I didn’t mind

I did it laughing and crying.

I turned on the gas

Five minutes before he arrived, I

Borrowed money in his name:

It did no good.

But one night I slept

And one morning I got up

I washed myself from head to toe

Ate and said to myself:

That’s it now.

Truth is:

I slept with him twice more

But by God and my mother

It was nothing.

Like everything else

It passed.

AGAIN AND AGAIN . . .