Lexicon Tom
by Michael Romani

In a world of slang and sociability
There are few who have had the capability
To coin the words and phrases in their times
Doing so without seeming linguistic crimes
Thomas Wolfe while not being William Shakespeare
In our modern times, came quite near

Verbal pyrotechnics blazed across his pages
As Willy's came across on Elizabethan stages
In the technicolor of punctuated prose
He created a new journalism of contrarian flows
As he neo-pretentiously dove into wry response
Painting the portraits of modern day once-upons

Shotgun baroque edging into machine gun rococo
His pitiless eyes spied the modern fairytales on the go-go
Able to do more with words than most others
He used these to tell our stories to our sisters and brothers
In a shadier bonfire of vanities turning into a beast
As the factual concerns of modern life are revealed the least

His final days spent in that uncomfortable possibility
That a modern life offers little depth despite complexity
Talked about as the man in full and surveys today's reality
In grave bit of right stuff measuring immateriality
Like a man from Mars he goes where he wishes to go
We will all soon enough learn that we too shall follow

(c) May 19, 2018  Michael Romani
All Rights Reserved