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Wednesday, March 30, 2016

The Nineties

There were still
payphones

and you could watch tv
over the air
for free
with a bent coat hanger
for an antenna,

and there were
countless chat lines offering
respite from loneliness
for $3 a minute,

and his name was still
Prince,

and OJ was not guilty
of murder,
but then he was responsible
for Nicole and Ron’s death,

and there were still
bookstores
and record stores
and video stores,

and I was still
young and single
and spent money
like time,
and days
like water,

and everything
I thought was
so fast,
now moves slowly
through my mind
as a lumbering dinosaur,
bathing my memories
in a romantic,
dreamlike patina,

or so it seems
from the vantage point
of this on-demand culture
I find myself
running alongside
just to stay current.

18 comments:

  1. You think you feel bad but it is even worse for me that had a childhood without TV but I still wouldn't change it for anything. I can remember listening to "War of the Worlds" on radio when your mind had the scene painted for you by the incredibly descriptive scripts!

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  2. Yes! I enjoy how you capture this truth with details, and I love the "lumbering dinosaur."

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  3. I feel the same way - the time that went so fast now lumbering slowly through my mind..........how quickly this transition happens. Nice to see you at PU, kiddo. Yay!

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  4. Next to last stanza has beautiful descriptive words. The poem resounds with me.

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  5. a period wonderfully captured in every detail....

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  6. Such a wise and profound perspective of the nineties.
    Beautifully penned.

    Lots of love,
    Sanaa

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  7. Lovely. You capture what many of us feel. Enjoyed this so much.

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  8. I cannot keep up with technology myself...I am lagging behind for sure...love the memories you brought back in this!

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  9. I'm longing for my flower print babydoll dress and granny boots now. Great write, Mosk!

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  10. Oh, the nineties -- those were the days.

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  11. And aluminium foil hanging off the coat hanger ... despite the weariness felt in this poem, I did laugh.

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  12. You make me nostalgic for the 90's, Mosk! Indeed spending money like time....and it seemed, didn't it, that both were unlimited!

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  13. It wasn't that long ago, isn't it, smiles ~ But it seems everything is moving fast nowadays than before for me ~ It must be the techno gadgets, making me impatient unlike before I can wait for someone to pick me up with hardly any phone on me ~

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  14. Ah the beauty of the 90s - too bad we didn't know it back then.

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  15. This is glorious. The nostalgia, the too real images (the other day, I had to explain to my stepdaughter--she's ten--why we needed payphones on the street. You still run into one or two in New York City. And, oh my, your poem is so on point when it comes to the speed. I'm running right next to your speaker, or a bit behind... and still not catching up.

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  16. I share your sentiments. Times they are a'changin.

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  17. Some decades stick out and maybe we don't need to'run current' Memory and nostalgia makes us human and this captures a spark of the 90s.

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  18. I like the comparison of 'speed' between then and now. All too accurate reminder of the times!

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