Martin Robertson

Now and Then

The Twenties

The war was over and the world was all

before them.  Never mind the rent and stain.

Enjoy life as it was before the fall:

sleep easy and eat freely, and again

travel, and watch again Nijinsky jump.

But the gay twenties got a dusty answer:

with fear sounding its gong of boom and slump

disaster closed, like madness on a dancer.