Challenging Poetry

Monaco: the shining lives

no one is allowed
to sneeze here without
a million euro. after all,
gold dust glitters
in the air and diamonds
shine their fire
from every neck,
from every finger. we come
to escape the fragile
veneer that is life
with music and dice
and cars racing around the track.
everything is color.
everything blurs.
nothing real.

Author's note ▶︎

I think this came from my impression of Monaco as a millionaire's retreat. The descriptions that I've read never feel quite real, and when I think about that kind of lifestyle, it always makes me wonder what's underneath--and how lonely such a life could be.