THE GRAND SCHEME
We’ve been to the moon and back,
we now know smoking causes cancer.
AIDS? TB? HEPATITIS?
We're still looking for the answers.
In the Grand scheme of things,
a lifetime is but a flash of lightning,
a blip on the screen of mankind’s history,
to some, that might be frightening.
In my lifetime….
when combined with that of my mother,
we've gone from one extreme
to another and then, sometimes, another.
We’ve gone from the horse N buggy
to moon and then beyond.
From Ma Bell's Yellow Pages
to Yellowbook.com
We’ve gone from Western Union
to the internet & Twitter,
from the days of Daniel Boone
to Hollywood’s Glitz & Glitter.
From the old windup “Victrola,”
which then, became the “Ipod.”
From Levi Straus blue jeans,
eventually then, to Izod.
From the old “two holer,”
to automatic flushing.
Standing side by side to pee,
no one even blushing.
From typesetting to typewriting
using Underwood & IBM.
Now its Samsung or Toshiba,
bought in some foreign land.
From the Sears Roebuck catalog
to EBay & Amazon,
in addition to our mailing address,
seems we all have our own dot com.
From kerosene lamps to solar lighting,
from paper to plastic ....then back.
We evolve, and then keep changing,
is anyone keeping track?
It use to take months
to make the trip from East to West,
now it takes only hours
once you pass the TSA tests.
Some lifetimes last for many years
though many are more concise.
We’d all get a lot more done,
if only we could live it twice.
STILL
In the Grand scheme of things,
a lifetime is but a flash of lightning,
a blip on the screen of mankind’s history.
To me, that's no longer frightening.
We’ve been to the moon and back,
we now know smoking causes cancer.
AIDS? TB? HEPATITIS?
Someday we'll find the answers.
Copyright 2010 Richard Lee King
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Your poem wonderfully brings the reader back to whatbis, in fact, the most important thing....
Chip Bergeron
Newfie Hugs, Rose
Write On!
Marcia
a lifetime is but a flash of lightning,
a blip on the screen of mankind’s history.
How so very true.
fee
Very clever Richard! I miss so many things from simpler days...
Blessings,
Christine