In the beginning, coffee tasted terrible,
Paul Harvey expounded rhetoric on the radio.
The children of Wisconsin’s ’70’s walked fearlessly
in their Earth shoes, getting drunk at gravel pit parties
while searching for misplaced dreams.

In the reaching, coffee became necessary,
waitressing during Colorado’s oil-rich days.
Youthful adulthood sparkled and dined recklessly,
in the sugar and cream ‘80’s, working then bar partying
while searching for whispered dreams.

In the growing, coffee tasted wonderful,
technology separated the have's from the have not's.
Arizona babies arrived with needful ‘90’s attitudes
frantically paced lives generated cocktail parties
while searching for denuded dreams.

In the continuing, coffee remained necessary,
the millennium brought hopeful trepidations.
World events collided with humanities fears,
innocence collapsed, the party came to an end
while searching for blackened dreams.

Erin Moen
10/7/03
Copyright 2003 ©