Good Old Days

by Carl Watson

Everybody talked,
People did seem to remember,
There had been a turning point,
At some point—a stick-pin in time,
A posted position in space,
But they did not know if it was cataclysmic
Or came about gradually
Like a frog in slowly heating water.
No one could state a specific date, either
Only vague periods were ever mentioned
Times they both had, and had not, lived through:
The 80s, the 90s, the 60s, the early Oughts,
After the rigged election, before the maelstrom,
Pre-digital, post AIDS, post Covid,
But before Elvis, and after the Beatles,
Perhaps it happened in the Swift-Beyonce Gap,
After that last assassination,
But before that shocking TV documentary
That changed everything, back in the day.
Remember? How in the time of ADHD,
There had been a spate of earthquakes,
Maybe they caused the problem.
Geology was tricky then,
Astrophysics were way out of line:
A ring of fire had appeared in the sky.
Solar storms were also cited,
And gamma rays gone rogue.
Regular conflicts were often invoked
Like TV time slots in the longest of broadcast days:
Before the war—many were sure
It was then. But what war was that?

The war that came after or the one before?
There were so many to account for.
Some traced the cause back to when
They could sort of remember
A purpose to their existence. Yes!
That was a time of contentment.
All agreed. Subscription even seemed
To promise a meaningful life.
Others said the problem began with a decline
In the ability to make informed choices,
Proportionate to the increase in choices
Among consumer items and services.
It was common then that those still capable
Of reason as opposed to emotion,
Would go off on long self-assured tirades
About The End Times, at the end of which,
They might state humbly, that just maybe,
They were wrong about it all anyway,
So please don’t pay attention
To anything they just said.
Like many a modern politician,
They simply “misspoke” rather than lied,
Followed rather than led,
And repeated what was told them,
All while thinking what they actually said
Was really their own thought,
Which everyone knew it was not,
And so, in the end, the questions didn’t matter,
Everyone just went about their day,
Dismissive of all conflict, following
Their bliss toward profit
And being the best that they could be.