Dear Diary . . .

"I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train."—Oscar Wilde,The Importance of Being Earnest

These writings are a make-shift diary

of imaginings sensational and truth

to see me out the steampunk journey

begun in the Mzansi of my youth,

when the bad old world stood on its feet

and never thought it could be beat.

Anglophones don't read Chaucer

or Shakespeare any more,

lacking their vocabulary.

In Paris, off the Champs-Elysées,

theaters close on soon-forgotten plays.

Even the Comédie Française

has seen, they say, far better days.

In Moscow, Chekhov and Pushkin are shills

in Putin's filthy test of wills.

Ancient Greek is today's Greek

students' least favorite branch of knowledge.

It's not for that they go to college—

tales of old Athens in Thucydides

send them sighing to phone trees.

All this sensational, of course, you know?

A traveler's train is ever so.

Monday, July 7, 2025