“Modernity” by Janice Lee

festering fire what a dire promise

to see temptation in a dress

an avid dusk yet the man does not confess

for his sins he savors the taste of avarice

the sly ones stake claim on docile amethysts

purple of which the dreamers lace into wrists

alabaster busts destroyed by jealous fists

the haughty chase sons of kings down pistes

oh it is a time of merriment and despair

as it was in the era of pyramids and the modern tower

men always reek of ego and the women of divine power

the riverside merchants chortle without a care

i am a civilian in the whizzing of the crazed

the obsession with minimalist beauty at the core

has dissolved ancient gems into sand by the shore

those with headphones fully on remain unfazed

by the turbulence, flipping vertically,

tossing in circles, shooting side to side,

it is all but silent in their eyes, a blissful adieu

to the insanity of today.

Janice Lee is a poet and a digital artist. She majors in International Studies.