Elegy for a Century Barely Begun

What I miss most
is the sense
of something
Better

“These things are gone forever
Over a long time ago
Oh yeah.”

coming

a new song
a new dance 

a whole national
mood 
to love
or fashionably
Scorn

Lord pity these children
who look forward 
to nothing
but the next
Summer Christmas
Blockbuster Event

of stale
fart jokes
& obscure culture 
references
to make 
mom & dad
feel clever 

& remind 
the rest of us
there’s nothing new
but the remake
of

the toys in the
Happy Meal™
the joyless
Sex the
senseless Toil 

only
a few more
Shopping seasons
Left
until


___________________________________________________________________
From the forthcoming collection Nymphomagic Electroshock and Other Middle-Aged Complaints.
Copyright © 2004, 2017 by Lawrence Roy Aiken.