songs of experience

My 14 year-old was writing this poem around the same time I posted “Introspection.”
Musta been something in the air. Or was it a full moon?

The 19-oughts were industrial,
Monopolies ruled the nation.
The tens had WWI,
Creating a sensation.

Roaring twenties had a boom,
As stocks and credit soared,
Leading to thirtie’s depression…
Unemployment, dust storms, and more.

Second world war came in late ‘41,
With a huge united force,
But fifties wanted calm,
With suburbia’s birth, of course.

In came sixties…
Rebellion! Revolution!
Anything at all,
Against common institution.

Seventies turned the world,
Just a bit TOO far.
It was no longer about the issues,
Just stoners and guitars.

The eighties and ninties were odd,
Not much happening politically.
But was that a bit of a front?
A false reality?

Now we’re in 2007,
A new millennium.
Things are starting to happen now,
But little is being done.

I don’t want “time travel”,
To re-live the past.
But don’t you think it’s time,
For another movement at last?

Choose an issue,
Pick a side.
CARE about what’s going on,
Don’t just hide.

Don’t hide in your sports,
Your gossip, TV, clothes.
Narcissism ISN’T RIGHT,
But the self-obsession grows.

Something needs to happen,
Or nobody will care,
About anything at all,
Except their makeup and hair.

I’m not saying I’m perfect,
Or my ideas are right.
Just try to leave your own little world,
And come into the light.

- sj kerwin