The Poetry Marathon

Just wondering how they lived, my ancestors

Using capsules to the moon and back

Carrying tablets and pads and phones

Heard they used to dial numbers and wait

Until the other person picked their call

What a life!

Saw some of those antiques today-

Ferrari, Lamboghini and Maybach-poor sods

A snail’s speed it must have been.

Hospitals used a thing called laser

Which they called a major breakthrough

Just called a friend now by thinking it

Gazillion digits floating in my digital bank

Upgrade and update in milliseconds

And we’re nowhere near where we want to be

I hear grandpa cello speak

of life’s travails

Of faraway places through hills and vales

Of stolen kisses and broken hearts

As love finally departs.

Life’s a crescendo,

Sometimes a counterpoint-

But what’s the point-

If two hearts have become one

And this battle of life is not won?

Of life's issues and questions too deep
of things too clear to see
of things which aren't what they seem
and miles to go before I sleep

Of all things my eyes have seen
of lions that roar and gazelles that leap
of posers too complex
and miles to go before I sleep.

childhood is but a distant past

when we flaunted our naked innocence

before a dying world,

shrieking at the silvery darts

dotting our bodies with pimples of rain.

now the rain is gone

the rainbow of life gradually fades

like our innocence

and on our dried-out lips the question hangs:

where did our innocence go?