Baby Boomers

Are you coming?

Born after ’45 and born

Before ’63—

Such an arbitrary state.

Sandwiched between Hiroshima’s Death

And the assassination of a JFK,

Baby Boomers are a state of mind.

Iconic moments define their

Quandary.

Bursting free with the King of

Rock & Roll’s Kong.

Soaking up

the commercial pabulum

on product-sponsored black and white

T.V.

Reaching High

With Mercury shots and

And smoking hemp above

Woodstock’s lawn.

Walking proud on an alien world

and

Across justice’s Mall demanding

Humanity’s rights.

Marching true with the

Stronger sex in search of

Human dignity.

Dying

Ten thousand miles away in useless

Agony.

Ending the first phase

Under the multi-color globe.

Finally,

Fearing A plague and beating out the bias

against the Gay.

Later,

In infamy,

Lifting up the old Gipper in wallowing

Patriotic Dementia.

They--

Trade a legacy for rising

Stocks in K portfolios behind once-hated

Picket-fence enclaves and the escapes of

Creature comforts.

But,

All comes in full circle.

Baby boomers bequeath nada

To X,Y and M.

Facing the first decades of a new millennium

When they desperately rush for sanctuary

In Nostalgia,

Medicine,

Faith,

Politics,

And Selves.

Trading in their uncanny iPods for

For obsolete 45s.

No longer able to

Rise, Fight, Protest, Curse, and Toke.

Growing old is a drag, man.

See,

You pooped yourself once more.

Are you coming to watch yourself consume the last meal of

The Great Society’s Welfare State?

Leaving rotten morsels to the posterity

Of an eviscerated middle class.

Listen,

The oceans are rapidly rising and

Haight-Ashbury is

Drowning.