Gen X

I was a latchkey kid,
But I also have to admit,
Growing up in the seventies and eighties was fun,
It was a different time,
And I don’t mean to whine,
But I kind of miss those innocent days under the sun.

I was part of the MTV generation,
Like Kool and the Gang’s Celebration,
It was a good time and yet I didn’t even know it back then,
I was a gamer with Atari and Nintendo,
(Millenials - this is an innuendo)
But I used to write down all of my poetry on paper and pen.

My first computer was a dinosaur,
A Commodore 64,
I learned how to write code before writing code was a thing,
I mastered the Rubik’s cube,
There wasn't a YouTube,
They were dog days of analog even when dial-up was a thing.

I was taught to be cordial,
But I was also resourceful,
I could use a number two pencil to rewind a cassette,
Not everything was peachy,
(I stored old poems in my Pee-Chee),
I learned valuable lessons that I’ll never forget.

It was a smaller less connected world,
Sometimes lost in a whirl,
There were no cell phones, no internet, no social media,
In those days that was the standard,
I had to handle to not knowing an answer,
Until I got home to a dictionary or my encyclopedia.

When the ninety’s came around,
Us Gen Xers hit the ground,
We changed with the times and took the plunge,
And as the walls came down
A new sound came to town,
For me it was when metal gave way to grunge.

Now as I grow older,
I look over my shoulder,
I think back and wonder what will come next,
Whatever it is we’ll be ok,
If I made it through those days,
I think I’m in pretty good company with Generation X