Poetry Saturday

Old poem with lots of references here from events, movies and musicals of past decades.  Have fun figuring them all out.

A LOOK BACK

I wrote a line under the influence of wine about

what was then and when I felt more myself than now.

How love is lost to be recaptured when boy meets girl

in a whirl of 50's, when we all believed in ever after.

Stories had endings of a happy note and scripts were rote

based on Cinderella and Charming.  Virgins were alarming

when filled with the next generation.

But now we do it by ourselves as if impregnated by elves

or Dopey or Doc - A tick upon the clock, to be or not to be.

These are the decisions made once laid by Charming

or his friends.  It lends itself to small ideals

One feels that yesterday was best.

Lest all things come to an end, the video store will

lend you a happy ending.

I was born when flags were waving, saving the world

from whatever.  We never saw what was to come

when we were numb from caring, when Astaire and Rogers

would be bothers but sharing the latest stock report

or a wart on democracy was the thing.

Woodstock, Beatles and now Forbes and Liz can spend

a fortune on their balloons or toons and Roger Rabbit are the fad.

Without brass bands we sit to watch garbage sent

to outer space.  That's the only place left undefiled,

untouched by human hands.  I want a little Rooney

and Garland, Andy and his girl, a simpler place to

face the world left by them to us.  Why the fuss?

when we all think the same and blame

is laid to rest on what is left of Berlin's wall.

I lag behind the general mind of Penn and Madonna

I want something more for me and the poor

who ask, "Why Not?", but that's an echo of long ago

for a generation born when the world was worth saving

and Astaire, Kelly and Cyd had their way.

where a nightingale sang in Barkley Square, but

now there's Cher when I would rather have Minnelli.

Silly, but I like brides for every brother and

other things like wings on my monkeys, who

weren't on backs.  We lack the ability

to see things as they used to be before the

Baby Boom and zoom lenses on Japanese cameras.

I love Baryshnifov and Brodsky - All those who

left and might go back to see home again

Is it a sin to wish for open borders.

Help If you remember the songs of that time when

friends were friends and ends were what we hoped for

more than suburbia and cars in every garage.

A collage of then and now when we can begin

again to sing in the rain and listen to a

Carmichael skylark or just double park on

New York streets.  What sweets await

those with good memories who actually

believe in dancing on ceilings and feelings

that Brigadoon just might come again in

something other than revival

Let's put on our silk stockings and Porter, you

ought to pay attention to rhyme and time that

doesn't come again when funny girls were

whirls of life, because we all were kidds

Michael and otherwise.  Still Fosse is a

soft spot in the pajama game of fame and

all that jazz.  But Gigi, how close we stand

on land made shaky by Middle East and

Debakey and we can't even get the heart

transplanted into tomorrow.