Every once in a while
I wonder
Was it really better, then
Were things truly simpler, and kinder
Decency, Respect
Agree to Disagree
Move on and get things done
Or were we just actors
Playing given roles
Reading from the script
Pretending to pretend
Because we didn’t know otherwise
Or we knew, but chose to look away
Or didn’t have the strength
The fortitude
To demand a rewrite
Of the dialogue we were given
Conformity, an old shoe, comfortable, known
Yet still not the right size
Did some of us always see the wrong
Did some of us never see the right
Because our country, now
Is not that country, then
The deep chasm
The biting divide
The angry, angry voices
The pain
The loss
The in-who-manity
It’s easy to blame the bitter orange fruit
In the house of white
But he did not get there on his own
He was fertilized, harvested
Chosen as the prize at the county fair
Exalted even, raised high
Annointed by leaders
Of houses of worship
And other houses
With dark doors and cold, white walls
Walls to keep out the colors
A twisted border song
With lyrics devoid of compassion
Lacking those words
Decency, respect
For the better good
Was this here all along?
The savagery, the defiance, the vindictiveness
The lies
Have I rose-tinted my memories?
We had our issues, then
The racism, the misogyny, the self-imposed superiority
Of the White, Straight Whale
The persecution
Of the Ls and the Gs and the Bs and the Ts
Inequality was always in the subtext
Just under the water
But on the surface, most of us were kind
Nodding to each other politely
As our paddleboats passed
Whether we meant it or not
And for a while, then
Between Camelot and the news of foxes
When the hopeful among us thought
We might all ride in the same boat
On that water
One day
But the tide changed
The levees broke
And the wall was started
Unfunded by Mexico
Or the Statue of Liberty
The Orange juiced a rusted machine
Once thought broken, abandoned, derelict
But it roared to life
And the threshing of the machine is loud
Reverberating
Encroaching
On the fields of Camelot
To the cheers of some
To the pain of others
And we find ourselves
Where I thought we couldn’t, shouldn’t be
Maybe it really was rose-tinted, then
And I didn’t see now
And it was always there in the script
One that now reads as a eulogy
But I hope not
I can’t NOT
The pendulum swings
We man the boats
The lifeboats
And we paddle our way
Toward the roses
Tinted and otherwise
We’ll find them, someday
Surely
But every once in a while
I wonder
Categories: Past Imperfect
Bonnywood Manor 
Brian. Well done. Poignant, rich, moving.
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Thanks, Lynette. I was actually working on another bit and it just came tumbling out…
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❤️
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💙💙
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We all wonder. The hope is the last pea brained Ignoramasaurus is soon to crash into the primordial ooze, or swamp.There is hope, after all. There better be. Camelot isn’t ready to tumble into the murky waters just yet.
Well written, well said.
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Thank you, sir. I’m ready for the crashing, and I will valiantly defend Camelot with my tinfoil sword…
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“Or we knew, but chose to look away
Or didn’t have the strength
The fortitude
To demand a rewrite
Of the dialogue we were given”
A matter of perspective and the wisdom in a poet’s pen. Kudos!!
A splendid poem that asks the right questions. It is a fine piece of
work that will live long past all of us. Ya done good!
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Such kind words, especially coming from someone whose poetry I find resonantly satisfying…
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I’m feeling humbled and appreciative.
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I wonder, too, Brian.
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But at least we’re asking questions, instead of blindly accepting…
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Well done! Life was different than now, but better is subjective. Certain illnesses killed then, and don’t now for example. People walked more, ate natural foods they grew or picked themselves. Less travel because it was too expensive for the average person then. A mixed plate between then and now for certain. I think it is best we look for the positives in the time and place we are planted.
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Oh, I do, I look for them every day. And I truly believe that most of the world just wants peace and equality. But there are still many speedbumps and potholes on the road to such…
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Your words make me feel all the feels! I ask myself the same questions, and I keep doing my small part to make the world I want to live in. A giant box of crayons world.😍💃🏼
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I love that, a giant box of crayons world. I will happily join you there and help keep the crayons sharpened… 🎪🎨🎈
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God man, this is brilliant. I mean that in all sincerity. Well done!
I heard a quote which I’ll probably botch, but I think it applies a little: when we excuse past injustice (racism, homophobia, etc) as “it was just the time period”, then we devalue all the people who fought the injustice in that time period.
Keep up the fight. You are not alone.
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Thank you, Christi. As I mentioned to Lynette above, it just came out of nowhere. I had pulled up my trove of Past Imperfect possible photos, found this one, studied the photo to see how I could make it funny, then realized it was speaking to me in a different way. And there you have it…
I totally agree with the quote. Justifying the past is a disservice to those who stood up…
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The same country that elected Barak Obama also elected the Trumpster.
And both Republicans Obama beat were vastly better candidates than the one we have in office now.
I’m inclined to think of 2016 being a national bad hair day.
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You have a point. To be fair, though, Trump was not popularly-elected. (The Electoral College worked in his favor.) Neither was George W. Bush.The last Republican President to win the popular vote was George H.W. Bush, nearly 30 years ago…
But we’ll go with the Bad Hair Day… 😉
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Absolutely brilliant!!! I’ll stand with you, defending our Camelot, my tinfoil sword clutched tightly in my hand, raised high…..
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And a brave resistance it will be. Unless a new episode of TWD comes on, then we might have to take a short break… 😉
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Brilliant and touching and sad. I’m a bit older than you, so my memories are even more deeply rooted in the golden years of Eisenhower and Camelot. Thank you, Brian.
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Thanks, Sandra. To paraphrase Linda Ellerbee, the Hope folks had in the 60s was so strong because everything started to seem possible…
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Powerful, evocative, and just damn good writing Mr B.
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Thank you, Claudette. I was just in one of those moods where it has to come out…
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Yes, yes and yes!
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So I take it that you liked this one, at least a little bit… 😉
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