The Way Things Were Poem by Alexandre Nodopaka

''Nobody was more charming than he was,
when he took the trouble to be so'' Pierre Gautier

For a while I plunged into the mid 19th century.
The time transition was facilitated by Eugene Delacroix
whose 731 pages diary I wouldn't skip a page.

I mean I even knew how many Francs down to a Centime
he paid his prostitutes. I also ate with him and thanks to my
stronger stomach I relished his leftovers.

Yes I attended his dinners and musical soirees
but especially the time he spent on alone by the seashores.
Most of all I appreciated his disdain for many

of his contemporaries whose asses we kiss today.
Frankly speaking I didn't care much for his paintings.
I mean I was born amidst them. I hated most when

I started my classe de sixième and the tedious learning
process of French language. From the proper use
of the comma to the point of coma.

What I retained was the typical philosophy
of the teaching of the time when we were taught to read
between the lines for the real truth of any statement.

Like him I dislike profoundly our deplorables.
I have the unfortunate acquaintanceship of many
multi-millionaires in my extended family

whose ignorance of the finer things of life is expressed
with a simplistic, "How inner-esting".
The extent of their cultural education.