THE ROAR
Copyright © Geoff Allnutt (The Speech Painter) 1999

 

In the roaring twenties
time itself accelerated
and hedonism, never sated,
reared its head and detonated.
The New York skyline elevated
as thrusting buildings penetrated.
The street and sky were separated
as wealth and power accumulated.
The hot fives' horns syncopated.
Al Jolson tones enunciated.
Prohibition consolidated
the need to be intoxicated.
The mafia poised and syndicated,
corrupted and ingratiated.
Al capone intimidated
for valentines he mutilated
rival gangs were liquidated
as violin cases orchestrated
when tommy guns retaliated.
Streets of blood coagulated.
Tabloid headlines circulated
and the public looked on fascinated.
Flapper girls were celebrated,
high on sex and liberated,
trouser wearing emancipated.
The Charleston craze contaminated
the second they participated.
Josephine Baker's butt gyrated
and the western world imitated.
Harwoods wristwatch incorporated
a rotor where power was generated,
so winding up was eliminated.
Man and time both celebrated
the seconds they'd annihilated.
Labour saving was congratulated
the wheels of progress lubricated
by assembly lines that duplicated.
Production times were correlated,
analysed and tabulated.
The working man affiliated,
downed his tools and agitated
as revolution reverberated.
evolution's claims were implicated
as they monkey trial subjudicated.
Christians spoke and ruminated
and preached the bible stipulated
that life itself was regulated
by god who, in six days, created
a world where people procreated.
And the word of god reiterated,
fell to earth and consecrated
the ground Darwin had desecrated.
Houdini died and extricated
the chains of life he'd tolerated.
Surrealist thought associated.
Unconscious dreams subordinated,
erupted and gesticulated.
James Joyce's prose was punctuated,
published, praised then confiscated.
The pearl of nature cultivated,
knotted strung and graduated.
Bubble gum first masticated.
The lie detector articulated.
John Logie Baird demonstrated
as the first TV radiated.
Madison Avenue fabricated
said ³smoke and be rejuvenated².
Advertising wasn't regulated
before the public litigated
and surgeons cut and operated.
War heroes, freshly decorated,
lived it up though amputated.
The KKK initiated
in a land so free and segregated.
Hitler's hatred first orated,
as market forces hyper-inflated.
The stock exchange fluctuated.
Traders and brokers speculated.
Fortunes fell obliterated.
Ticker tape precipitated.
The Wall street crash humiliated.
Financiers, once remunerated,
closed up shop, capitulated,
their property confiscated,
as profit dipped and dissipated.
Currency depreciated.
The losses only estimated.
Left thousands broke and devastated.
Time magazine was illustrated.
Quartz clock crystals oscillated.
Robots were named and contemplated.
frozen peas inaugurated,
insulin isolated.
Channel no 5 was formulated.
Birth control was advocated
baby food concentrated.
Band aid stuck and medicated.
penicillin inoculated.
7 up was carbonated.
A motorway formed and fumigated
and Mickey Mouse was animated