American Decline

'A Great Society'
Which has neither food
Nor room for its artists,
Whose poets, painters
And musicians
Dwell in the Village
On the borderline
Of the nether world,
Neither living nor starving,
A society steeped in a glut of
Externalisms supported by
Empty-headed bureaucrats,
Led by a swarm
Of legally authenticated
Shysters or petty tyrants
Whose gods are ostentation
And crass materialism,
A society which waters down
Its silver and its soul
Where morality and hope
Rot in shambles,
Where the bitter bread
Of Welfare
And the circuses
Of commercialism
Are provided for the multitudes
While crime stalks the streets,
Such a society reminds me
Very much of Rome
Being swallowed up
By the Dark Ages
In its final decline.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz