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Summer of ‘73
It’s sunset and the sidewalk still feels hot.
My legs and feet are bare, they do not mind
Mosquitos nearly eating me alive.
The neighbor kids are starting to come out.
We play a game of hide and seek; I hide
Up in a tree and watch the game below.
The street lamp casts its steady yellow glow
On parents who bring cigarettes outside
To smoke while they sit on the stoop and talk
To other parents who have joined them there.
Summertime is best, we have no cares;
And we are happy to ignore the clock.
Smartphones, selfies, social cyberlife
Are decades still away and it is bliss;
We think that childhood always will have this
Freedom to enjoy a summer night.
Epilogue
It’s 2023; the streets are stark.
Now children hide behind their glowing screens,
Prisons hosting parasites unseen,
Surfing, streaming, scrolling after dark.
.
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Gigi Ryan is a wife, mother, grandmother, and home educator. She lives in rural Tennessee.
Your poem and insight are an excellent vision of the changes in our cursed culture and society!
Dear Roy,
Thank you for your comment…if only I had the solution…
Gigi
Although I am not a grandparent, I can remember a simpler life. Thanks for this poem.
I’m writing this comment on my cell phone, and I’m sitting near someone else who is on their cell phone.
Dear Alan,
You are welcome.
I confess, I often write poems on my phone. I don’t carry paper and pencil everywhere. Perhaps I should try and cultivate the habit.
Gigi
This poem takes us back to a simpler place and time. It may have been simple, but it was better. Technology can go to hell! Thank you for this poem.
Dear David,
Yes, I think it was a better time, too. I lament that my grandchildren will not know it.
Gigi
It’s hard to believe that 1973 was just fifty years ago. What a finer, nicer, more decent, and more livable world it was.
Dear Joseph,
Yes, I agree; it was a more decent and livable world.
It’s sad that, as a child, I was taught so much about the dangers of smoking. (Which I don’t dismiss.) But as I look back on that time, cigarettes were nothing compared to the problems of social media and phone addiction now. In fact, cigarettes could be, as in my poem, a time of social union.
I ought not fear what can kill the body, but what can destroy the soul.
Gigi
I’m old enough to have experienced both ends of this spectrum – both of which you captured perfectly. I liked 1973 a lot better.
Dear Warren,
Thank you for your comment. I think I agree with you.
Gigi
“Freedom to enjoy a summer night” for children, and leisure for parents accompanying them. A bittersweet reflective scene, Gigi. Good idea to date the poem at both ends to show exactly when you mean. The more leisurely rhyme in the 1973 part suits the atmosphere.
Dear Margaret,
Thank you for your comment. I am glad that the more leisurely pace in the 1973 part of the poem was evident to you. It is hard to know if the way I read what I write is how others will read it.
Gigi
Gigi, the summer of 1973 was a great time to be alive. Your wonderful poem brings it all back. I feel for this present Tik/Tok generation and the suffocating evil of the smart phone. You are right on the button with your words today. Thank you.