Why Does’t Anyone Take Vanity Seriously?
Vanity: futility.
Think about its synonyms:
Not just swagger, not just ego,
But the worthlessness of aims,
Ambitions, (look at politicians);
Self-regard, self-admiration
Look at selfies (they’re in fashion)
Self deception is more like it;
How it strikes the smallest tykes
Who do not know
It’s all a show,
All things changing, coming, going;
Ostentation, self-absorption
Both illusion at their base.
All takes place: a chimera.
Putin’s manic link to Russia…
Dreams, delusion, vanity:
Vanitas, from vanus ‘empty’.*
How to clear it, not go near it.
Purge the urge, halt its surge:
Just get rid of it?
Don’t know.
I’ve got it too.
It always will be up to me
And up to you
To purify the drive
That lives inside,
Trying to hide,
Presenting pride as worth the name.
Reminding self it’s more a shame,
A phantom dream
Than prize or gift or premium.
Why Doesn’t Anyone Take Vanity Seriously? 6.2.2022 Circling Round Vanities II; Arlene Nover Corwin
*Middle English: from Old French vanite, from Latin vanitas, from vanus ‘empty’ (see vain).
Arlene Corwin Poetry 