From the Archives : Les Miz (2016)

Everybody’s a critic when it comes

to the Revolution — some sing

the chorus upon barricades

while others take aim

to please make them stop —

that’s when the shot of the very

first shot they shot is shot

and the day’s wrap for those

who were lucky to have died.

Things will have quieted down by now

for the friends we’ll never meet.

Friends — no matter what they will

have pointed at us, done with us, to us,

what now we feel shall be revealed

les affaires immatérielles d'antan

and the times will recast us, rolled over

in their greater sleep — to fashion

of our lives history, to reboot

our homes into glamorous flats

of pilots — ace debonaires

with prudence enough

to know when to quit

the hopeless conflict

and go nurse those 

dry martinis they

left sweating

at the bar.