Shadow and Light
(Written in response to the poem “Black and White.”)
Over age 40? Here’s some truth from the new generation.
Don’t get me wrong,
I love those old shows.
Classics for long
All that and more.
But if I may speak a while.
Sir, sit down and please don’t be sore,
And don’t view me as a child.
The shows of old are lovely and dear.
So simple and sweet
Parents needn’t be ware
Of the bad things and screams
They never harmed any babes, those old TVs.
But something’s not right
The black and the white lied you see.
The loving families of “Father Knows Best”
The eyes of “Lassie,” brilliant and true
They are no different from the mess
On our high definition color surround
The only difference, the only thing
Is that you never got to see
What went on behind the scenes.
Violence and hate survived in black.
Lies and deceit thrived in white.
Let me tell you why you really want the old shows back.
The simplicity and the friendly smiles
Were all painted on with a poor painter’s brush.
The breakfasts, the perfection, the people’s damn reactions!
All you want back to feel safe when you have the truth crushed.
The world is no different now from then.
The only difference is
Now we can zoom in.
Into the faces to see the lines
The living color reveals
The lies all of the “great actors’” eyes.
The fake and the phony
Is what you truly love, you asses.
You’ve known all along that the world never changed
Only plucked from your nose those rose-colored-glasses.
Let me tell you something, if I may.
The black and the white that you love so
Is the reason the under 40s are screwed up today.
The God they trusted as they slept in their separate beds
Is the one so many of us defy when your lies about Him were seen in color.
But now we know there are bad guys who DO win fights
And so we’ve learned to hold one another
At night when we know promises CAN be broken
The wind will CUSS from somewhere cold
And some NEVER will NEED vows
For the one they hold to know they love them.
Even though we NEVER fully knew wrong from right.
At least now we’re not hiding beneath the Black
And that White.
Copyright © Laura Meese | Year Posted 2005
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