The Last Time I Saw Paris/Sous le Ciel de Paris

 

 

 

Source of the Enlightenment that inspired

The American Revolution, it took a long time

And many beheadings by the guillotine, before

Anyone embraced Voltaire’s Traité sur la tolerance.

It was why our founding fathers feared having a state religion.

This is not the first time that the city of lights

Has been occupied. You can hear history

In the old recordings, the scratchy, empty spaces

For listeners across the world to fill with

Hope for peace. They were all citizen soldiers then.

In that Post-War city, black Americans,

& gays & most flamboyantly outrageous

Jazz musicians could live and practice their art.

The idea that one race was superior

To any other had been defeated, or so we hoped.

 

Is that tinker-toy, the Eiffel Tower, an eye-sore

Or a metallic feat of engineering the new century?

The somber Louvre barely cracks a smile

Over that glass pyramid stuck like a diamond

In its navel. The new constantly accosts tradition.

When the God Spot turns any human brain on,

Whoever does not belong to the new faith

Will be killed. There are no innocents, only

Self-proclaimed martyrs who bear a grudge.

We are all citizen soldiers now.

Disposable Poem November 15, 2015]

Dr. Mike