Byzantium was once a city on the Bosporus
famous for talking fountains
World War I made evaporate.
At one time, it was the saddest thing,
men limped around London and Berlin
with shards of Byzantium sticking out their movements.
Some came back with idiotic ditties
trapped in their hippocampus, others
strolled around for hours in wet dresses,
fleeing at the lowest possible speeds.
This was before television so folks
just looked into the fire and said
what they saw for entertainment.
Lots saw Hell.
Did they have it better than us?
When a woman smoked, it was like
she was naked so that must have been fun.
Certainly they were accustomed
to death having done so much of it.
Their doctors spent all their time
figuring out what was killing you
then killing you with something else.
No need for a lawyer.
The rat was huge.
Into the breach stiff upper lip was huge. 
When a doughboy missed his sweetheart,
he couldn't just write,
I miss your muffin,
because of the censors. Apollo,
who ate the most pussy of al the ancient gods,
was out. The Holy Ghost was in.
Everyone knew where the Holy Ghost stood on cunnilingus
even though He was ineffable. 
The invention of the telephone, machine gun, typewriter,
great strides in plastic surgery
before there was even plastic.
Funny thing is,
while just about everything was blown up,
nothing much changed,
so in 20 years they'd need bigger bombs.