ATLANTIS

I envy those folks who lived when

Flappers flapped and Jazz had just

learned to Jive. They were there for

Art Deco, whose smooth elegance was

too sweet to survive the jingles and

jangles of outrageous progress.

What is there about those

sleek lines that speak to something

sublime in the human spirit? A thing

to make us stop and soar into a simple

kind of sensual dream where long legs

and tasseled dresses tickle a smooth

thigh, and bounce with a frenzy of

desire? Those halcyon days of illicit

gin like a waterfall, when Tuxedos went

arm in arm with Coco Chanel and

arrived at the speakeasy in a turquoise

Delahaye with silver trim? A time

when sin was passe.

OH! Those Clara Bow lips, bare backs,

and silk stockings in the arms of a broad

shouldered triangle do paint a portrait

of enchanted delight to grace the wall

above our bed.

Such a sad reminder of how we have

seemed to stumble and fall flat in

our decline to a jagged time so shallow,

we no longer know anything of beauty

and how it can teach us to dance.

Reviews

[AYVID N]

The past lost seems so beautiful in retrospect now.
I wish we could keep both progress and beauty. Not have to sacrifice one for the other.
The world is so flat, grey and impersonal now. Its a true decline.

This poem was such a wonderful one to read!

[Vol]

Divya,
I pity the Amish who chose to freeze themselves in costumes from two hundred years ago, I wish we had frozen fashion in the Early twentieth century when Art Deco was all the rage...
Vol

[Lorry]

I'll tell you what went wrong, see! It was those damn modern thinkers, see! They came along and said "change everything! Make it as cheap as possible and sell, sell, sell!
And that is how advertising was born, which led to greed, which led to whatever the hell we're in the midst of now and there's no sign of it stopping any time soon!
All the great art deco buildings now have been replaced by more modern s**t that will decay and need replaced before it even becomes a thing!
Now, if you'll excuse me Vol, I feel the need to go shout at some youngsters and tell them about the good old days. There were good old days, weren't there? Or did I just dream them? 😊

[Vol]

Lorry,
Maybe it was the Depression, maybe WWII, but somewhere along the way western culture broke our minds, tore our dreams, to shreds, and left us bewildered in the sand. You know what happens when you build upon the sand... I have a writing professor friend who told me once, "You know Vol, we are the last literary generation." He was not wrong.

3.6

[Lorry]

I be thinking so too. Could you imagine Shakespeare alive today? Or Reading the great gatsby in texts peak? Who needs big brother when we'll all end up grunting in caves, wondering what that hot s**t was called that we used for cooking food with was and how to start it, then we'll all cry because we'll be sure there was an app for it but they'll be no power to charge the make work again magic thing with!

[Vol]

We are in deep do do already... and are just now beginning to stink...

[RomeroNYC]

This is really good poetry. The measure flows something like a jazz a tune.