I see you
In the eternal neon twilight
Of your artificial magnificence
And shimmering facades
Rising from the dark flat sea.
Our Lady of Opulence
The faithful come to you
Seeking their instant salvation
In the fanfare of clanging bells
And flashing lights.
But you are vain and indifferent.
How many of your followers’ prayers
Have gone unanswered!
From Fremont to Flamingo
The heretics push shopping carts,
Your defrocked priestesses sell
Themselves for needles and pipes.
The excommunicated are on hands and knees
Combing dingy carpets in cheap rooms.
At the Greyhound station scared-eyed
Teenage runaways await your judgment.
They are doomed to go unremembered
Like so many two-bit gangsters
Buried in your desert.
3/31/2005
Very enlightening expose’ …revealing the ugly truth about sin city. Well penned.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Joseph, I like this and the way that you have paced it. The narrative uses a good language that appears non-commital, even though the poem is making a ttement. I like 'In the eternal neon twilight/Of your artificial magnificence' it doesn't hide anything, there eems to be nothing in it that is open to interpretation. The whole poem can be interpretated and that is what I feel is what is attractive about itt.