Reflections by Steve Brown

"Boomer" Musings: Sunday morning March 30, 2014

We were those who knew how to
use words to build ideas;
use tools to build a nation;
use hearts to share love;

We were the idealists who believed
in gods other than those of the great Pontiff Profit;
we believed in ourselves, and
when we spoke, others knew that we did.

The grammar we learned in school taught us
to speak well: Our words were clear, our thoughts comprehensible.
We used our eyes to bond with listeners,
and teach them that we believed in ourselves.

We protested what our elders had put before us;
We refused to murder the believers in a different
form of government, a different culture
that did not worship our Pontiff Profit and
those who built mansions, empires, runways
with the arms, and upon the backs,
of "Third World" workers.

We did not "text' -- we talked.

If we surfed, in was in a cleaner sea.
We did not fear a classmate with a gun;
there were no policemen in our schools;

We fortunate ones even had families ! Imagine.
Sunday dinners together around one table;
the Easter ham, the fish on Fridays,
hamburg cooked in myriad ways,
glasses of whole milk from bottles that had to be shaken,
and potatoes forever.

Now, here we war babies sit, our feet dangling
over The Chasm, legs swinging like a child's;
looking over lives spent building dreams
and taking more than we should have --
living, now, the years of late generosity, of giving back
to those from whom we stole their Earth.

If, as we approach the final ascendance, we ask for forgiveness --
let it be for what we have taken from our grandchildren.
In our repentant ablutions before entering Eternity,
let us use the waters of polluted rivers
( the blood and veins of a land we will leave for our progeny )
to perform a final act of justice --
and we the guilty.

We did well. We built well. We spoke well.
We loved well. We served others.

Let us go forth in peace. And gratitude.

We did not "text" -- we talked.

- Steve Brown

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