Degenerate Art

Les Fleurs du mal

By: Charles Giuliano - Apr 13, 2016

Degenerate Art

Spring came
After the war
Flowers  bloomed
In Flanders field
Truemmerblumen
Pushed up from
Rich compost
Corpses of
The brave fallen
Irony of war
Fertilizing beauty
So too with
Great artists
Eugene O'Neill
Tennessee Williams
Ernest Hemingway
To mention a few
But most obvious
Tormented lives
Processed as
Theatre and literature
Les Fleurs du mal
Born and died in a hotel
O'Neill like his actor dad
Drinking by eleven
Mining his family
Four Pulitzers
The Nobel Prize
American Masterpieces
His addicted mother
Thespian father
Merchant sailor
Bowery dives
All there in the work
Amazingly prolific
Defining theatre
For his era
Nasty drunk
Mean and abusive
Pissed in a bottle
Then drank it
Williams shaping his demons
Powerful plays
Mom and sister
Glass Menagerie
A treasure trove
Still sorted through
Pills and booze
Until there was
Nothing left
Hemingway
Another nasty drunk
Tales from Key West
Staggering genius
Mocked his gifted
Weaker friend
Jazz age
Drinking buddy
Scott wimpering
Out in Hollywood
Life and career in
Sad tatters
Zelda killed
In an asylum's fire
Such chilling demise
The devil's pact
Lives in the arts
Paying the price
Self cannibalism
For the audience
We the readers
Mining for insights
Digging down into
Those dark tunnels
Veins of gold
In the black coal
Fuel of inspiration
Ernest ending it
Turning that incredible
Brain to spaghetti