Visions & Obsessions

Monday, August 8, 2011

Dandy Darling

You and I should have been
Laudanum drinkers
Dragon chasers
Opium den lazing on tea stained brocade
Nodding in an aura of antique intoxication
Hazy veil descending like a caul
Reborn into an artificial paradise

You and I should have been
Kept poets
Court laureates
Bound by quills and parchment
Inking pretty words
Love letter confections for powdered ladies
To devour ravenously
Like creme pastilles from satin boxes

You and I should have been
Preening peacocks
Dandy dilettantes
Attending cultured salons
Cavorting with whores and courtesans
Dragging lace cuffs through fine feasts
Red wine spilling from your knife wound mouth

But, bound in blood, a decadent cliche
The suicide pact
Just staving off your final inevitable histrionic
Would you have held me to my word?
Mostly I just wanted to watch you dance and swoon
Conspire and gossip
Leave off your death mania for a while
I held your attention for moment, didn't I?
More than the cold grey world could

Better suited for greater times, you and I
If we wished to court Le Morte
We should have been
Buried alive in silks and excess
Choked by the cloying perfumes of moral decay
Raucous and drunken
Dis-eased by our own wantonness
Spinning, staggering
Giddy to the last into a pauper's grave

1 comment:

  1. Beautiful! I love the various old-world imagery and the emotions they evoke. This poem resonated with me on many levels. Well done!

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