Rules of life's engagements: you get what you paid for.

Rules of life's engagements: you get what you paid for.

No longer mainstream,

only wealth attracted

young beauty pageants,

anything else, just

an optical illusion, dreams.

While youth rode his greenbacks

the old bull cried

on the great divide,

with time running out,

his wallet emptied;

only loneliness 

knocked on his door.

Now the emporium

of delights displayed,

no longer viewed

vanished in a whisper,

his carnival over

replaced by old age.

Author's Note

based on an observation between an elderly man looking lonely, sad obviously hiring a young woman escort for company for dinner in a restaurant where my family and I were dining.