History's Buffet

History, it has always seemed, at least it always has to me, Is not something to be forgotten, For from it much is gleaned. It strikes me as more sensible, if I may be allowed to say, that's history is not a dusty book, it's an all-you-can-think buffet! From the ancients of the Levant Ten Commandments do I take. From the doughty Middles Ages: Chivalry, a fine impression makes. From the minutemen on Bunker Hills comes a true love of liberty. From the trappers in high Rockies A sense of true independency. The cowboy age it gives me an appreciation of the grit, along with a strong desire Not to take any lip. The roaring twenties gives me the thrill of living it up. The thirties taste strongly of thrift, Of how to suffer through the rough. Of the forties came a craving for punching evil in the jaw. From the fifties: Domesticity, it's great rewards I saw. From the sixties I take little, except maybe rock and roll. Though I admit as I grow older Its seems tasteless and cold. The seventies and best not eaten, On that most will agree. But the eighties' flavor is the power of man's ingenuity set free. From the millennium I consumed the fact that Islamism is not that great. And the present taste teaches clearly not to trust those who cry "Hate!" And this is just the beginning, so many ideas out there lay... A bit from here, a bit from there A plate built of every age. You leave behind the gristle, though it make take some time, but eventually you plate is choice, and free of fat and rings. And why some folks flee from it, I cannot begin to say. All I know is that once you start you will always crave the taste.