Best Baby Boomer Poems
Your paradigm's a relic and yes,
a plea from data's cemetery
While I sculpt luminaries on screens
a sable sea.
"Company loyalty!" a myth
spun in your reverie.
But AI forges kingdoms
in ephemeral memory.
Survival's a mosaic
the gig life sets us free.
No cubicles confine us
from drudgery's apathy.
You bartered years for baubles
in tenure's fallacy.
Oblivious to the fractures-
in stability's gallery.
We're digital artisans
crafting with autonomy.
Passion's our lodestar
in dreams we find our spree.
Not gears in a relentless
bureaucratic machinery!
The epoch you cherished
now a software jubilee.
The hustle's in our essence
innovation's our decree.
Toppling old monopolies
erasing corporate apathy.
We dismantle dated norms
the old guard's fallacy.
Erecting spires of purpose
evanescent yet free.
Our fealties to progress,
to visions that ignite and decree.
Not to a firm's legacy
in stone for eternity.
You mock "influencer!"
a term in your scoffery.
Yet, a viral post can shift markets
with acuity.
And dethrone giants with
a digital apostrophe.
The nine-to-five's an antique
a fossil choreography.
We're the narrators
the seers of modernity.
Forging bonds
a renaissance, not a hierarchy.
The safety net you sought?
A frayed and fading legacy.
A comfort you clung to
amidst life's capricious spree.
We hedge our bets
diversify, with boundless glee.
Designing nets of prowess
a fiery apostrophe!
To constraints
pursuing futures that long to be.
Not a pension's promise
a symbol of quiet despondency.
So shed the dated suit
the archaic fallacy.
The world you knew
Dad, is a VHS tape
a memory.
In your eyes
I see the pride...
despite our disparity
For in this dance of time
we share a rare clarity:
Though our paths diverge
our hearts beat in synchrony.
Your legacy lives on
in my world of modernity.
That was then, this is now
the future's our decree.
We, Gen Z, the coders
shaping worlds to be free.
Your world is fading, Dad,
a relic-
an ancient archaic memory.
It was a train
that took my mother west
away from her family farm
to seek adventure. She found work in San Diego,
joined the Navy and met my dad.
It was the 1950’s.
Planes were not yet a big deal
and many traveled long distances
by train.
It was a train
that carried my mom away
from a husband impossible to live with.
The year was 1960. For traveling far,
the train was the poor man’s choice.
Trains and buses were plentiful
when my mom brought her 4 young girls
back to her parents’ farm
to then start over.
It was a train
that my father purchased two tickets for
so that my sister and I could visit with him
out west where he lived near Seattle.
The year was 1969.
On a black and white TV, with my dad,
we watched astronauts walking on the moon.
It was a time of social unrest, and technology would soon
be soaring past the moon!
It was a train
that brought my sister and I home
from the lovely visit with our dad.
I recall having to walk past a troop of flirty boy scouts
that occupied one of the train’s cars
each time my sister and I made our way to the dining car.
We watched mountains turn into cornfields
as the train carried us back toward the Mississippi.
A most memorable experience it was.
It was a train
that brought me only a few other times after that
to visit my dad out west or my mother in Iowa
as I traveled with a spouse and two sometimes-wailing kids.
Like a train, my life kept moving.
After 1984, I’d use the train no more.
Trains had become nostalgic ways to travel -
used more by people with the luxury of time,
people who enjoyed eating meals as
scenery sped past them outside their windows.
It’s the plane
that modern rushed humanity today are using.
Buses are low-class and cars are for road trips.
Trains, though still running, are not much heard of.
It’s not so easy to find
a very accommodating route by train.
My life has flown by like a plane,
but if it should ever slow down,
I think I’d like to take again – a train!
Oct. 27, 2021
For the Railroads, A Historical Glance Back Poetry Contest
Sponsor: BJ Legros Kelley
My skin is all wrinkled
my muscles are jello,
I'll tell you right now
I'm one bummed out fellow.
My joints are all achy
my eye sight is shot,
it feels like my head
is clogged full of snot.
My lungs are all blackened
from decades of smoke,
I'm not in good shape
and I look like a joke.
I used to be able
to run a fast mile,
now every ten feet
I rest for a while.
I need a new kidney
a heart that beats right,
I need a new bladder
that last's through the night.
My teeth are all gone
and my ears give me pain,
I don't have the sense
to get out of the rain.
Just some complaints
from a speck on the earth,
that life is not easy
for what that is worth.
Albeit cold shower with sudden zoo
ming onset of
brisk fallen temperatures
may not be amenable to you
dear reader, but after Matthew
sets to washing
creating substantial lather,
visited with healthy slew
of frothed shampooed hair do
(cuz - jest like
Spongebobsquarepants,
I like abundant suds),
which initial shock
of cold water jolts mine
body inducing "Whew"
to escape soaped over mouth
(here, lemme lean in
so yukon get a whiff)
this self proscribed
quasi (very diluted off the
Peco boo grid) deprivation
of hot H2O tolerance,
qua minimal self
elected survivalist
modus operandi value
bull electric kool aid acid test
undertaken in the
event devastating adversity
(mainly an electricity
power outage) doth render
livingsocial uncomfortably
cold to the bone and sinew,
where mind over matter decides
riches superfluous,
especially if parvenu,
when scads of back up
generators conk out
total unbelievable wreckage,
sans the overnight
natural germane Blitzkrieg
imposes savage apocalyptic
devastating hellacious milieu
(on account of a mega disaster
such as hurricane Michael), who
doth not indiscriminate
toward gentile or Jew
obliterating entire infra
structure super glue
equalizing economic disparity hew
wing fair playing field reducing
whether disposable wealth harkens
from "old" money, and/or nouveau
riche, this sudden
catastrophic event brew
till lee decrees indeterminate
penury, and trappings
of theoretical leisure class
bon voyage every stitch of cloth,
and other material goods
forcibly bade i.e. adieu.
Who were they?
They walked to and from school when they were younger.
They had to complete their homework alone before they were allowed to go out and play.
They were given chores they were responsible to keep up with.
They were given money to go to the local store to buy simple things like milk, bread, eggs, and they returned with the change.
They collected empty bottles to take to the grocery store for 5 cents each.
They could be seen walking around the neighborhood with a lawn mower on summer days asking neighbors if the needed their lawn mowed.
They would have paper routes when old enough for extra cash to buy things.
They would play baseball with a plastic bat and a tennis ball on the street in between cars passing by.
They spent most of their time playing outside, but they were required to return home when the street lights would turn on.
They would sometimes be successful begging their parents to play hide and seek on a school night as long as they stayed close to home
They were resourceful in making things like rubber band guns, sling shots, wooden swords, and a makeshift bow and arrows to play or act out.
They were social and hung out together playing games or playing at the local park.
They were more likely to listen to the radio than to watch TV.
They enjoyed reading, collecting, and exchanging comic books.
They also collected and traded sports cards from those bubble gum packages.
They played board games and cards when the weather was bad at a neighbor’s house.
They knew the rules to playing Jacks.
They read books with a flashlight when they were supposed to be sleeping, usually a comic book.
They had parents that were present.
They fade away, never to return…
Edward J Ebbs - 11/06/2023
Mr. Chuck Schumer
Is a Baby Boomer
His real name is Charles Ellis
Aren't you just insanely jealous?
Although, I'm thinking, perhaps, just maybe
there's a better word to use than "baby",
here's to you, child of the baby boom.
For someone like you, there's always room.
It's too early for your work to cease,
booster of love, champion of peace.