Decadence Outside Dior’s

by Steve Arney

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I walked down the avenue of obscenity,

of unspeakable wealth,

store window displays glazed

with million-dollar baubles

for women waltzing by

in shoes of gold,

bandaged faces newly

contoured by plastic surgeons

to attract men driving by in

Porsches so sleek they slice

the air like knives,

and pass a man dressed

in impeccable black

carrying a pink shopping bag

with the head of a tiny,

perfectly coiffed dog

sticking out, next to a

ragged woman, dark complected,

head scarfed, sitting on the

cold concrete sidewalk

wrapped in a ratty blanket

a bewildered child on her lap

a battered tin box in front of her

containing two small, round, worn euros

and I thought, surely,

another revolution is at hand.

Steve Arney lives in Gold Hill; his poems have been published here and there, including once before in Boulder Weekly.