History Lesson

You wish you lived in the sixties,
So you could wear two piece suits,
And watch the Beatles on Ed Sullivan.
I think you would enjoy the fifties too,
The birth of rock and roll, television,
The golden age of gender roles.
I’m not sure about the forties,
So much war and unrest, and
My short hair would have been frowned upon.
I’d have to go back to the twenties to be accepted,
Where you’d be a nightclub owner,
With a staff of doormen and bartenders,
Or an old time crooner, wrapping your soulful voice
Around those jazz hymns to love and mystery, and
I’d be the failing debutante to your washed up entertainer.
If we start going much farther back,
I can imagine you, in a powdered wig,
Creating wild symphonies,
Me, fingers ink-stained,
Scratching out poems in an attic,
Poems that no one would read.

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