back in the day

if you were talented

some rich fool would give you housing

pay your habits

all in the name of art

you could have sex with the servants

the daughters

wine soaked debauchery

as long as you put out consistent pieces

nowadays

we scramble and write and pour our souls out

and work mind numbing jobs

slave away for corporate masters

and die in anonymity

half those hacks back then vomited out pedestrian shit and were hailed as brilliant locally

forgotten globally

marginalized nationally

now the greats go unrecoginized

or only appreciated by a small handful that actually know what they are saying

we need to go back to the old ways

before lead in the air made the stupid even worse

and the rich vapid

get me a sponsor

i’ll leave your daughters alone

maybe

and even your wife

probably

i can write mediocre with the best of them

pedantic

check

self absorbed

got it

i can develop vices fitting the scene

i’ll out smoke

out drink

out whatever it takes