#17 - Necessary Coups

#50 - les Quatre Cent Coups (1959)

 

The art evolves, but slowly – glacial pace.

Divergence rattles, comfort is narcotic;

as careful rehashed bankers win the race,

and torpid lies the culture – dull, sclerotic.

 

I understand, I get it – writing sonnets

is hardly avant-garde – my aging mind

just bimbles out in verse whatever’s on it:

new innovations might leave me behind.

 

I still say evolution needs a shove –

no gentle nudge, but something firm and drastic;

not intervention’s calm, supportive love,

but revolutionary, iconoclastic.

So man the barricades, and raise the flag –

a boy, alone, freeze-frame: la nouvelle vague.

AWB

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