yeah, that's right. Charles Baudelaire's G.I.Joe name was "Sunshine". a lot of people don't know that. i remember reading some of his poetry when i was in high school and equated it with over-wrought gothic-overload subjects... not unlike oh, musical groups like The Cure, Muse, Depeche Mode. baroque. is that a better term? i don't know. but i recently found a copy of Baudelaire's collected works at a used bookstore and decided to give the ol' sourpuss another go. i'm glad i did because i found this poem:
Scrutiny At Midnight
The clock ironically summons us
to account for what we did with this day past,
Friday the thirteenth, ominous date! And yet,
knowing the risks, we have defiled our life---
blasphemed the most incontestable of Gods
and (worthy slave of Hell) like a parasite
at Croesus' feast, to please our monstrous host,
mocked what we love and what we loathe acclaimed!
oppressed the weak we wrongfully despise
and (servile bully) cringed to stupid Power,
genuflected before the throne of Things
and blessed the phosphorescence of decay!
Last, to cheat our moods with madness, we
whose Muse's priesthood serves a world of death
have drunk without thirst and eaten without hunger!
---Let darkness hide us: quick, blow out the lamp!
~Charles Baudelaire ( translation by Richard Howard )
in light of some topics i've covered in some of my Sociology and Geography classes and also in light of movies i've seen lately (The Road) and some documentaries i've watched (Collapse, Standard Operating Procedures), this poem seems very appropriate. ~xtian
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