A muffled splash

by Auroshara

A short poem, inspired directly by the words of Victor Hugo. It talks about Javert's suicide, and the following suicide of one of his policemen who has failed in his task to protect the Inspector.

How strange the days and months fly
Without the routine changes at all
How strange can the word "die"
Hold the routine in thrall

How this room with a single office
Can make one cold and shivery
How this air as chilling as ice
Was once warm as an eau-de-vie

And this absence is just as bitter
As the water of the Seine river
Where the pier's wall so abrupt
Hides a gendarme too corrupt

One guardsman of the City of Light
Was plunged into an endless night
Since he found a hat on a bridge
And a baton broken on a ridge

And in the night that claimed him so
The gendarme felt what he should know
Was to join his master
To live in a doubtful peace ever after

Nothing has really changed at all
For from all tragedies to befall
Suicides are the most violent
As much as the most silent