THE CLAN

We have no reserved seats
at the celebrations anymore:
no one occupies the place
of honor at feasts.
We no longer preside
over solemn processions
with the golden staff
used on those occasions.
Some search for doubtful jobs
in politics; bewildered,
banished from our class,
they may endeavor perhaps
to return to their old
provincial privileges,
to the gatherings
of ladies and bankers
who used to give me advice
about God and this great world
—which they saw from a distance—
while I dreamed of revolutions.
Now few invitations
arrive at their homes
and their elegant suits grow old.
The people are filling
the closed-up salons;
old mirrors die of scandal.