Reflections On An Era Poem by Ian Hammond

Cheap forty ouncers, and doped up delusions of grandeur,
Ghetto beats, and coloured ribbons, welcome to the Circus.
Welcome to the grand attraction Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to present - The Demise of Western Standards.
Somewhere along the line we lost it all,
Chivalry has become courage, and courage has lost its appeal.
Honour has become Darwinistic, and no one has ever answered,
When did it become fashionable to idolize Mobsters,
Who even knows the names Athos, Porthos, and Aramis?
Dumas is dead. Icarus has crashed. Oedipus, well, alright,
I'll admit, that’s one name which will never die.
Hardly a role model, or at least, for past generations.
These days who knows. Perhaps he will set a standard.
Western tradition is crumbling, from the heart down,
Fingertips tingle with reason, minds pervert faith,
This is what it feels like to know the West is lost.
Somehow this fact comforts me, on the verge of chaos,
Because I know, and only I know, what is at stake.
This cause is lost, the banner is falling, throw it,
Throw it to the dogs, throw it to the barbarians.
Western civilization falls tonight, into despair.
Survival of the fittest, never took into account these
Processed foods and pre-packaged ideas.
What does it even mean to be original these days?
Style is not originality, art is not a trend,
Poussin must wash the earth with his tears.
This is the collapse of western tradition,
With one last breath we let free a battle cry of
'Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité! '
This is our final push over the Bastille,
Before the West is lost.