Down in the dumps with self-pity can prove to be a great nuisance, you'll see...

IF YOU PULL A LONG FACE: 40

If you pull a long-bored acrimonious face
Looking hardly at anyone passing your way
Your sunken cheeks spiting your own face
But those bitter bitten lips will give you away

If you keep pulling that long forsaken-look face
Wondering why each face will not own mask betray
Slop around in slippers not deigning to tie shoe-lace
Know that « la caque sent toujours le hareng »* all day

If you then must keep pulling your long sagging face
To thwart all and everything not going your way
The noble Fa-Ling lines stop at the mouth without grace:
The « Flying Serpent enters the mouth", the Chinese say

If you still insist on pulling that long worsted face
Since no-one will miss you once you’re gone, you say
Just think how many have not even by « contumace"
Pulled a long lost face some weary dreary day

So if you're the kind to pull a put-up pleasant face
See no smile lurking in within the Sun’s awakening ray
Hear no Garden Warbler trill livening up the pace
Know then, Friend, you’re loose change in the cash tray

Note: * Literally, in French, means: "the herring barrel always stinks of herring », but figuratively, as in this instance, means:
« you can’t hide your origins ».

(c) T. Wignesan - Paris, September 18, 2019