A Different Time

I was born in the wrong era and
it becomes obvious as my walk
devolves into feelings of frustration, disgust,
misery and mystery.

The streets are littered with the discards
of a wasteful and all-consuming civilization
without conscience or care for community.
Animals meticulously clean themselves while
our slovenly domesticated inhabitants bask in filth.

I walk past an adjacent building proudly
displaying its date of birth, 1890, on its stone façade.
My thoughts wander in admiration.
The changes this place has "witnessed"
over the past 132 years is multitudinous.

Oh, to be a sprinkle of dust blowing effortlessly down a dirt road;
a bird perched high in one of the many long-forgotten trees;
a pedestrian sitting on his porch listening to the gallop of horse hooves
and the conversation of the moment.

Men and women remained in touch with nature’s calls and sounds.
Oh, the glory of blissful silence;
of a time devoid of automobiles, coarse human vulgarities
and bitter intercourse.

I find the lack of escapism here imprisoning and claustrophobic.
I yearn to vanquish the reality of the present
for the dreams of long ago.

The days of my great grandparents, to them, must have longed for this future.
For simplification and technological innovations
that could make their lives a bit more bearable,
restful and relaxing beyond just the Lord’s day.

Instead, their wishes, which have come to rapid fruition in my lifetime,
have made our lives more hectic, troublesome, noisy, messy and unsociable.
Neighbors are not neighbors in the pure sense like trees and its leaves.
No, they remain strangers in close proximity.

Is it best to be ignorant of others,
to live in isolation, cut off from the wider world around us?
Or, is it better to reach out like a sturdy oak and get to know everyone,
Despite their myriad foibles?

Like trains during its mechanically turbulent infancy, I am getting off track.
I will holster my thoughts for another day,
Like a gunslinger pausing ever so briefly
Before regrettably pulling the trigger.