Modern American Civilization

"Street Fighter" quarter arcade machines
with flash-frame strategy
beautiful ethnic back-drops
and just a little gore
(way less than most games) ;

Excellent delivery pizza with gallons of cola
in less than an hour
through rain, sleet, or snow
on any day except Christmas ;

Hundreds of rock-stars
often eaten up by the same drugs
that fueled their magic,
along with the god-hood illusion
of modern fame...
though tragic death increases that

Vibrant cultures of superstitions
filling the television channels
centuries after Darwin and Voltaire:
many taking ancient forms,
but just as many being new inventions
often with borrowed trappings of the East
or the American Indians...
many of whom can be found driving Fords
teaching at universities
or at French restaurants, salad forks in hand
and folded napkins in their laps

Then there are the guns,
guns everywhere:
in the hands of ranchers,
in the hands of accountants,
in the hands of thugs
who spray neighborhoods with bullets
from their speeding Cadillacs
for reasons of business, revenge, or just entertainment

and Coffee-houses,
though recently learned from Europe
have become omni-present
offering plain coffee to the working joe
and many more expensive creations
of almost artistic high quality...
tailor-made to order

Often there are paintings on the wall
(sometimes of amazing detail and inspiration,)
and the artists deliver the pizza
and staff the arcades,
while the poets and play-wrights make soy-milk mochas
for demanding torte lawyers who don't tip...

but we don't mind so much
because it's hard to starve here,
and we're exploring new worlds
and living new dreams