Observations In a Den of Inequity

 

went to the casino the other night
sitting there
     stone
     cold
     sober

pumping coins into a punk of a machine
& she wasn't giving me anything
in return

in this Mickey-mouse
neon tragedy
with all its banal bells & whistles
I looked around
at the dead flowers
being ground, into the putrid colours
of the casino carpet

& everyone looks like they're going down
on this sinking ship
& everyone looks like me
      ten
      twenty
      thirty
Christ! even forty years
tomorrow