Picture Show (Sassoon collection)/Sporting Acquaintances

by Siegfried Sassoon

SPORTING ACQUAINTANCES

 

I watched old squatting Chimpanzee: he tracedHis painful patterns in the dirt: I sawRed-haired Ourang-Utang, whimsical-faced,Chewing a sportsman's meditative straw.I'd met them years ago, and half-forgottenThey'd come to grief. (But how, I'd never heard,Poor beggars!) Still, it seemed so rude and rottenTo stand and gape at them with never a word.

I ventured 'Ages since we met,' and triedMy candid smile of friendship. No success.One scratched his hairy thigh, while t'other sighedAnd glanced away. I saw they liked me lessThan when, on Epsom Downs, in cloudless weather,We backed The Tetrarch and got drunk together.