The Great Gatsby (2005)

In the great Gatsby's day
ladies sang the blues
while dining on wine and whole nectarines
boisterous crooners
sang their way into civility
long before the picket lines formed in Alabama, and women went to war
Words, so sweet to the lips
and bitter to the stomach.
We bathed in pearls
of wisdom and wore them well,
cigar smoke a tunneling force of nature
that swept our lovers into our arms
even when they were bad for our beds.
The market held the promise of riches, although the lottery was more honest
now a line has been drawn in the sand
in blood, the whole world, that was once
so fond of merry making breaths in
knowing either way
the merry days were long gone