Modernity

“By ‘modernity’ I mean the ephemeral, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art whose other half is the eternal and the immutable.” – Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867). 
 
I miss the days 
When Midas Kings 
Trembled before God 

And as their grey hairs 
Curled with age 
They wept with fear 
Of camel-pin hell 

And grew expansive 
Gregarious 
Huge as laughing 
Singing Ghosts 
Of Present Now 

And laundered 
Bloody capital 
In hospitals, galleries, libraries, schools…