before avocado shag
was a joke
and gasoline
was something spoken about
in the same sentences as words like
shortage and war and green
before the glass ceiling
that separated
the earning potential
of bra burning women
from their soon to be
metro sexual brow waxing
male counterparts
was even an issue

back before men
wore their hair long
and still wore
the pants in the family
and women
didn’t really wear pants
at all…
back when mothers
stayed home and
raised their own children
and the american dream
was something
that was worked for,
was attained,
not an entitlement
at birth…

back when
you threw a brick
with a note attached to it
through a window…
if you really wanted
to get someones attention
instead of shot up a campus
or blew up a car
or crashed low flying planes
into skyscrapers filled with
innocent people..
back when wars
were always fought
on distant shores
at least a hemisphere away

back when life was in technicolor
and make believe was black and white
and i was just a little girl
who had yet to even dream
of falling in love…..