Corrupt City Streets
after Juvenal
The city’s gutters run thick with grease and last night’s cheap wine, a noxious stew that clings to every cobblestone, a constant reminder of the rot that seeps from the very marrow of our so-called leaders, who line their pockets with our hard-won coin while we struggle to survive on scraps and dust.
The market stalls, a riot of color and sound, hawk their wares to the desperate and the blind, a cacophony of false promises and deceit, where the only truth is the weight of a well-placed bribe, and the only law is the law of the jungle, where the strongest devour the weak and the innocent.
I took Juvenal's scathing critiques of Roman society and applied them to a modern city setting, using his characteristic dense syntax and colloquialisms to create a sense of urgency and moral outrage. I also drew on his fondness for harsh consonance and assonance to add to the overall sense of satire and critique.