Last month, the poet was in Cannes – there was a conference, Shaping the Digital Infrastructure of the Future (but the poet wasn’t there to shape it) – here’s the poem that came out of it:
*
Last month in Cannes, rain
storms passed us, parties raging
along the Corniche
*
Where badged delegates
sauntered holding forth to all
who’d hear their wisdom
*
A fiery sunset
lit the sky’s blue-screen cloudscape
trumpeting the rippling sea
*
Swifts gathered screaming
for crepuscular feeding
preening and bonding
and mating, breeding fledglings
*
who still don’t know about flight
*
Just like us, maybe
as we wander through alleys
streets and squares behind the shore
and for a quiet moment
*
soak in the stillness
*
Remembering that
death can come at any time
for any of us
badgering us with its truth
*
as we breathe the air of Cannes
*
Always beautiful
in spite of shit that’s done here
for power and cash
*
Next month in Cannes, heat
waves interspersed with tempests
roil along the coast
*
To other cities
every bit as beautiful
but not quite as rich
*
The elderly die
in droves, and fires ravage
to swallow up the forests in their smoke
and riots unchained
rip sweltering streets
*
Those mundane horrors
that the mondaine glamour masks
– just like us, perhaps –
*
Next year in Cannes, there
will be digital breakthroughs
we can’t imagine.
*
**
*
Freddie Omm
June 2026
Photos by Freddie Oomkens
