Sonnet - the Cynic

I think the sonnet form is almost bare Of interest in this modern world so fast, TV commercials keep us in our chair And all we're taught to value doesn't last. Our friendships are as vapid as our schemes And fortune jeers to think we'd ask for more, We throw away our honor and our dreams Like babies loose inside a candy store. And now, my friend, I've come at last to see That love belongs to only those so weak That thread restrains them, never to be free, Mere fools who have but platitudes to speak. Yet, though I have no virtue left to steal, I look at you and hope that love is real. Brian Johnston March 1992 My attempt to write a Sonnet capturing Yuliya Verbitskaya's world. She was 21 at the time. In the interest of clarity, however, the last two lines are more about fraternal love than about any romantic intentions toward me.