A Lament for How It Was Meant To Be

In 1967.

They lied then.

They lie more now.

The doctor visits the 10 year-old in his squalid bedroom.

She strokes my throat gently and says I have mumps. 

"He may become short-sighted."

I am.

The Jewish dentist,

still suffering from his loss,

A young daughter taken,

Opens his surgery,

On a Saturday,

For me.

I recover.

Three libraries I can walk to.

How to choose?

Men in the factories.

Go to night school 

And quote Marx and understand.

 

Do we really have to fight another war?

Please God NO!

Remember how it was.

It could be again.