1969

© 2024 Raven (Michelle M.) Steil

Iggy Pop wrote about it, “1969, okay”

We danced around the maypole on May 1st

kids unaware of being indoctrinated 

with socialist agenda, but nobody cared

Pretty ribbon streamers around a metal pole

on a perfect sunny day when crocuses

popped out of the ground, and daffodils listened

Meanwhile young men were dying

in the jungle lying in some strange place 

on the other side of the world

The artists did not keep that secret

“Children of night, who among you will run with the hunt?”

Jim Morrison’s half-drunk, half-crazed voice

blared over radio waves like a demigod 

to shout Rimbaud at a reluctant audience

not fond of lizards, not Children of Night

Children of Light

riding on shiny new tricycles

in a Church gymnasium in 1969

Crime was just a dream

not played out before our eyes 

white men with semi-automatics 

gunning down children in schools and parades

Vietnam-mutated human DNA passed down

with a bloodthirst for the Innocents

“Well, it’s 1969” everything is not okay

On a clear day you can see forever