Vanity Fair

Chittering women among chattering men

– Love is all around –

Everyone is listening to everybody

– And to him – And to her –

This is all good: impossible not to

Acquiesce to what is being said:

Nodding, nodding, much clapping, clapping:

Enthusiasm, frenzy – all

Shiny, happy, laughing people,

Seeking intellectual integrity and stimulation

And finding it now, here, amongst

These beautiful gentlemen and gentlewomen,

Who strangely look as if they were holding mirrors.

But who is this person who is enquiring

About the feasibility of this or that?

There is no time to be spared or to be

Wasted with mere trifle.

– She ought to step out –

The hustle and bustle of the complacent crowd

Gets the better of the dented cog.

Then the best man must stand out.

He must pass his knowledge on:

For they are all eagerly awaiting

To nod, to acquiesce – not to learn –

That has been dealt with a long time ago –

It is barely imaginable to enjoy a world

Without. Without this cohesion, this

Mind-shattering brain force – this eye-opener truth –

Perhaps there is some fear lurking somewhere

Somewhere dark and damp and doomed,

But even then it is just what it is: perhaps.

Everything is said and done on a specific

Purpose: the common good, the betterment

Of society and the fervent wish to

Save – Home sapiens, fauna, flora – the World.

Walking away is not an option because

Everything is new under the Western sun.

Walking away is NOT an option as people

Ought to walk, and think, and discuss:

Not everybody can do it – not everybody

Outside this circle, that is – and it is

Difficult not to agree.

The consensus is total, unanimous,

So much so that there's a hint of love

Floating in the clever air, titillating the nostrils.

With a great deal of flashing eyelashes and

Leers and affected gestures –

No one is to spoil this by acting –

This must be crystal-clear –

But then there's no harm in thinking it:

After all, their being here is concomitant to

The intermingling of a unique, intense,

Creative, general thinking:

And, last but not least, all of them being

Intelligent, original, understanding adults:

They all, all, come to the same conclusions –

as if as one –

There is not a cloud in sight!

But then it is just what it is –

Perhaps –