Uptown

“Uptown”
Painting by Tommy Buell McDonell
From fineartamerica.com

the motionless swagger of limestone façades
fringed epaulet shoulders guard citadel luxury
intimate supper clubs cater to gilded sensibilities
here where the splendid grandiloquent dwell
high above asphalt moats in their capital keeps
working levers of commerce and rum aristocracy

why is success a disparaged degenerate quality
when admission is discriminately priced by due
measures of merit and providence winning is not
some mean character flaw wealth and power have
neutral morality motives and methods however are
certainly worthy of judgment in all parts of town