Forty years ago
I looked forward to my senior year in high school
I was idealistic
I still want to be idealistic
I thought myself no longer a sophomore
Not knowing that most of us remain sophomoric
Our entire lives.
Forty years ago
I envisioned launching the future
While I remained earth-bound
I would send others to discover and report back
Now on Facebook
Were I to create a "How well do you know" quiz
I would fail my own.
Forty years ago
Our peers told us "go with the flow"
But life's river took us
To a sea of petty challenges
Which has kept us too busy
To dwell on past dreams
And present realities.
Forty years ago
Arthur Clarke had a vision of a computer
Tool turned tyrant
The computer remains a tool with no personality of its own
But tyrannical nevertheless
We stare at the screen every day hypnotized
By the data thereon.
Forty years ago
We watched in awe the fuzzy images
One of us stood on the moon.
Now there are those who deny it happened.
They accept with their faith
Only fables told from the pulpit
And decry science and fact.
Forty years ago
Robert Heinlein told tales of a Future History
Religious fanaticism prevailed.
I cannot fathom how it came to be true
Perhaps by sheer number
How ironic that those with no belief in the theory
May win the battle of evolution.
Copyright © 2009 by Carolyn Cannon
