Vegas

The drumbeat of lights
Hit upon the hearts
Of all who swam
Through the sea of sensation
Ping, Pop, Bing,
Ring, Tatatatatatatatatat!
The sounds like waves above
Pressed down then ebbed away
In a steady rhythm of tides
The smoke gheist
Waded in and swirled
To flow within every breath
In a pale inky silence
While each sensual statement
Expressed in procession
The Statues ached and cracked
As they blindly drank in the show
Naked and unfeeling like lost souls
As in ancient times past
Here the spirit of forgotten Rome
Along the ocean-less shore
Drew in the wayward hordes
To give them milk
Like Romulus and Remus
At Lupa Capitolina
Only to cast them off again
After the games
Fountains of coins clanged
As they showered down
Like little metal birds
From whence they came
The fabric gold
The satin dress
A plunging back
From the Athenian Arch
Sight crawled down along
A neck fine and rare
To a vanishing point
Dark and unrelenting
There many dreams rested
On the vaulted brush beaten sky
The ancient pillagers looked down
Upon the reflections
Of polished marbled plain
Those caught up, and calling out
Lions, Warriors, Senators,
Caesars, Victims, Martyrs all
Till another, and another
Should fill the eyes and soul
Again and Again
Along the Appian way
Like an overwhelming fountain
Upon an endless thirst
Aqueducts overflowing
Candied lips
Dazzling eyes
A turn of a hip
A stab of a heel
So fair a skin
So keen the smile
Rounding away
On a beautiful thigh
And coming again
Those generous seekers
A shoulder bared
To catch a sigh
For the gaze of a Venus
Atop of the nape
Beneath the flax
To the curves
Clinging well
All that ripples
Breathing in the night
Is capital gotten,
stolen, spent and lost
In the wealth, hearth
Hounds, snares
The hind and prey
Of Vegas.