Last month I was in Cannes, there was a conference about Shaping the Digital Infrastructure of the Future (which I wasn’t there for), and here’s the poem that came out of it:

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Last month in Cannes, rain

storms passed us as parties raged

along the Corniche

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Where badged delegates

sauntered holding forth to all

who’d hear their wisdom

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A fiery sunset

lit the sky’s darkening cloudscape

trumpeting the rippling sea

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Swifts gathered screaming

for crepuscular feeding

preening and bonding

and mating, breeding fledglings

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who still don’t know about flight

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Just like us, maybe

as we wander through alleys

and for a quiet moment

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soak in the stillness

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Remembering that

death can come at any time

for any of us

badgering us with its truth

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as we breathe the air of Cannes

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Always beautiful

in spite of shit that’s done here

for power and cash

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Next month in Cannes, heat

waves interspersed with tempests

roil along the coast

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To other cities

every bit as beautiful

but not quite as rich

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The elderly die

in droves, and fires ravage

to swallow up the forests in their smoke

and riots unchained

rip sweltering streets

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Those mundane horrors

that the mondaine glamour masks

just like us, perhaps

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Next year in Cannes, there

will be digital breakthroughs

we can’t imagine.

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Freddie Omm

June 2026

Photos by Freddie Oomkens