Cain and Abel | Painting by Titian (1544)
THE KID DECADE
(W.H.AUDEN in Memoriam)
Everyone was arty
on both sides of the pond
jazz or classical
didn’t matter
if you streaked
or had a new blonde
Here you looked
away from Stalin
swearing on the Fifth
you never attended
any Party parties
that once was “in”
You were a modern,
kitsch your enemy
now a friend
of Eliot and Auden
wishing to flee
no snitch may offend
The kid decade is over
everyone wants to forget
gone into exile,
wishing to play Hal
or Hamlet
in memoirs to regret,
The star chambers
is in a memory loss
Cain slays Abel
nor any war last
trials are everywhere
in our past leaves
and clover
on both sides of the pond
resembling our cross over.