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Open Poetry #45
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icebox
Member Elite
since 2003-05-03
Posts 4383
in the shadows

0 posted 2009-08-15 01:11 PM





We used to wear flowers in our hair
and listen to Dylan and the Doors,
and the Stones,
and smoke a lot;
the world,
it seemed,
could be done over
in paisley and peace,
it was the peace that comes
from being numb,
but we were young
we were young.

War back then was just another reason
to get high
and mighty,
to walk around
with mushroom soup for brains,
sticking flowers in the guns,
running naked through Chicago,
sticking truth in their ears,
telling ourselves we really did
levitate the Pentagon.

Until a trench coat man
with promises and money, lots of money,
said all I had to do was all I had to do
for all the money I could make,
it didn't take a genius to figure out a plan;
what did it matter where the killings were
as long as all the killings were
for God and country's sake;
Hell
it was only time and money after all,
it was only time and money after all.

It all helped me to believe we'd beat Him,
by dealing death we'd cheat Him,
scam the Reaper live forever,
not just in our deeds
but forever young,
like an awakened sleeper,
to rage somehow some day against
the Johnsons-McNamaras-Nixons-Daleys
and the rest of all the check book patriots,
well
we were just
the best we'd ever seen,
the best we'd ever seen.

The last time I was in the Haight
street walkers with cell phones
wore granny dresses
so salesmen from Des Moines,
and Akron,
could go home to tell their buddies
in the club
how they had a hippie,
in the Haight;
how times have changed,
how times have changed.

Remember TIME and LIFE?
Before anthrax, god's own freaks, missing nukes,
earth killing asteroid streaks?
Money that evaporates,
religions always based on love
teaching us our private hates?
Internet pornography, YouTube,
Twitter geeks,
H1N1
a bad odds bet?
Every news bite a crisis,
lies
just a way to speak
by idiots
trying to spend us out of debt?
When spin was what our tires did
not politicians and CNN?

They used to warn us
to the bone
about the evil of the life and times
in which we always seemed to feel at home;
now we are them,
now we are them.

White papers and documentaries
were strident warnings everywhere,
about hippie acid in reservoirs
how we had to watch the water
to protect the body politic,
about powders that we buried in our genes,
how drugs and sex and rock'n roll would rot our brains,
when we should be getting high on life;

that's what we'd read in any paper
whenever we were straight enough
to read about their hate.
It wasn't often we were straight.

They must have been right
about those drugs building up
inside us all distorting our reality,
so we ignore what's there to see;
it must be
why wide-eyed panic hides naively
behind a breathing mask,
why terrorists who were released
on presidential pardons flew back
becoming ashes in rain that dried
to powder on windowsills looking out
on deadly gardens,
why I don't drink the water anymore,
why sunsets get redder every day.

The cities now,
they say,
may have to be abandoned;
the cities
may have to be abandoned.

©2003, 2009 by icebox
.
.

© Copyright 2009 icebox - All Rights Reserved
rad802
Member
since 2008-04-19
Posts 279
KY U.S.A.
1 posted 2009-08-15 01:59 PM


Wow
There is a lot here.
Thanks for writing this. I enjoyed reading it.
I am not sure but I think maybe 10% of our generation used drugs to excess.
Many tried different drugs a little and then stopped.
I have many friends that are gone now because they could not stop.
It may not be our culture's (hippy culture) fault if everything goes down the toilet.
Less than 5% of the population has all the power. We can choose to organize and oppose all of the insanity. I hope this happens.
I do not know if it will help.

A worthy legacy is the irrevocable consequence of dreaming.
Rick A. Delmonico

Midnitesun
Deputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Empyrean
since 2001-05-18
Posts 28647
Gaia
2 posted 2009-08-15 03:43 PM


It's hard for me to respond, as I lived so much of this scenario, mostly on the west coast. We tried to change the world and stop the fighting. We failed for the most part, but not because we lost our faith. Many of us held tight to the dream, still do today. Maybe that's why I am alwasy broke? Success and Money dangled before twenty-somethings managed to win the overall battle.
Callista
Member
since 2008-10-05
Posts 63
USA
3 posted 2009-08-16 01:40 AM


You need to write a book.Interesting to hear a first hand account. (I guess).
Oklahoma Rose
Senior Member
since 2008-02-28
Posts 1586
Oklahoma USA
4 posted 2009-08-16 10:11 PM


You're a wonderful writer.
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