There was a shift

There was a shift

In the last century

It didn’t last much longer

Than Elvis, Kojac

And the Quiet American,

Steve McQueen may have had

A hand in it.

He drove like a bullet

Made a street into a destination

Paul Newman was cool

Bukowski a drunk.

Until the British invasion

All the English guys

Were wannabees

With baggy faces

And plastic elbow pads

On donkey jackets

Nobody could talk about London

Without mentioning bad food

And rain.

America had the Empire State

The Golden Gate, which was neither golden

Nor a gate

But they had a canyon

Bigger than England

London had streets paved with gold

So went the rhyme

But Hollywood had a Walk of Fame

With stars everywhere

It was the place to be

JFK was the leader

Of the whole free world

Everything in America

Was in Technicolour

Until it came to resemble

A film set

For ill-conceived plotlines.

A screenplay

Full of grifters, producers

Procurers, reality stars

And bad storytellers

With saturated septums

Peddling a dream

That was a nightmare,

Even before Fatty Arbuckle

Casting couches

Area 51

Agent Orange

American Imperialism

The reinvention of doublespeak,

And Jeffrey Epstein

Rubbing shoulders with

All the President's men,

Created a monster.