leonardcohenforum.com

Modern Legacies



Oh, please let me never

be modern.

I see them all when I go

downtown, men and

women alike, paying lip

service to whatever

is chic

that particular week.

They drink because

everyone else does.

They smoke dope

for reasons

they don’t even know.

Breaking every convention

only to end up

with 2.5 kids,

the car,

the garage,

and the dog named Skip.


I knew some who were sucked

off by thirty five year old

queens for dope,

and a place to sleep.

I knew others who stole money

for dope only.

I knew one fifteen year old

runaway who lived

with a nearly thirty year old

man in a trailer,

her nose in a ray of powder,

legs spread for most lovers,

and sat in parks

modern and trendy

in sun-bleached afternoons.


And I’d always ask

why not read Keats, or such?

Why not give yourself over

to something beyond

today?

But why bother —

they say grant us all

emptiness

as a legacy.