Wild Parisian Nights

Wild Parisian Nights

from Parisian street side café
a chance meeting a smile a nod
to the back alley dives where
cigarette smoke hangs to the floor
and the mandolin players wail sadly
lost loves remembered and profaned

the party continues to the apartments
where all night poetry readings ignite
with a glimpse of a secret muse's entrance
loud voices proclaiming beauty's appeal
the spoken word or the written verse
impromptu art commingling with wine

later authors of much acclaim eating
stolen foods out of their pockets poor
just to keep their strength up for more
of the mad driven lunatic night's fun
the roaring times at the end of war
giving vent to a rebellious brilliance

ferocious mobs of partiers continue
their quest for the glimmering bits
the shining fire of knowledge and mirth
couples falling together entwined
stopping mid coitus to spout a reply
to some drunken reader of lost poetry

crazy nights of nervous energies spent
but from this endeavor came their words
a multitude of stories an' books to last 
bits about a rose and a razor's edge
driving the literature world for years
force feeding a society unwilling

the times change and so the accepted rules
from one generation to the other we evolve
but if not for these raging party goers
there in Paris town at close of world war
the stagnation of our society's literacy
would still be stuck in the Victorian era

so thank you all
you mad rover writers
for telling the truths
that you lived and saw
others lived until death
I shall read you words

and then ask for more