i
I was walking home and met the Ghost of 1983
Clove cigarettes, Orange Julius and Plug-in potpourri
It seemed a pity that it had to wander without a mall to roam
I wanted to do something nice so I brought it home
ii
The Samaritan has hit the skids in millenia number three
No good deed goes unpunished is the modern screed
But I rather like my dayglo phantasm born in cheerier climes
Before everyone got a branch from which to bleat full time
iii
So now I share my roost with the Ghost of 1983
Clove cigarettes, Orange Julius, Plug-in potpourri
If I can be good enough to open up and make a little room
Then maybe I shan’t be so alone when sealed in the tomb
Saragun Springs 
Aw – there are all sorts of things to like about this. I suppose befriending and being kind to a ghost is a way to ensure that you have company moving on. I think it would be nice if we could bring back the ghost of our favourite year or era. Mind you I’d still want a computer even if it was the late 1960s. dd
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Thank you Diane!
I wonder if we would go into withdrawals if sent back to an age of pay phones, the post office and waiting for the newspaper. Even those of us who were there might be a bit shaky. People under forty would be lost.
Leila
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LA
The first two lines of the second stanza in this seem to be where the main message lives.
The whole thing reads as if narrated by a voice that lives above all times, which is wonderful and one-of-a-kind!
Back in the ’80s, I remember the encyclopedia and the library as being just as exciting as the internet, and you could learn just as much that was important, too.
Now, you can learn the same amount of important things via the internet that you could back then via the library: not more.
In 1989 I received a copy of the literary magazine CHIRON REVIEW in the mail to which I had submitted something.
Never heard back from the editor but then he published something of mine AND put me on the cover next to CHARLES BUKOWSKI, who was still alive at the time.
No internet, yet still amazing personal excitement through the mail.
And 1983 is the year INFIDELS by Dylan came out, a great album!
DWB
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Hi Dale
Since it is WP I will try placing my thoughts in one.
You are the best comment person ever. Never once have I read a superficial remark from you.
I agree. The Good Samaritan has seen better days. People sieze on horrible situations as a reason not to help. But really, unless there is no one around or the person is obviously trouble, we should help even if it is a smile. I have caught myself justifying aversion, which is another down element in our society.
Thanks again!
Leila
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Leila
It’s also well for us all to remember that back in the olden days some people would write to each other pretty much every day, and mail the letters every day, walking to the post office box every day, or handing it to the postal person as they made their rounds.
So, receiving a daily, handwritten (or typed, later) letter on paper from a correspondent was probably (not probably) just as exciting as email and texting can be today.
Thanks for writing this poem!
D
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……and Information Overload never equates to Intelligent Thought and is in fact the Enemy of all intelligent thought……….a good thought for all to think about…….
Because you can’t think good thoughts when your brain is drained (or burdened) with too much B.S.
So we probably know more surface level facts now but know these on a much more shallow, surface level of knowing….useless for anything good.
The average African person is a much deeper thinker than the average American: FOR SURE.
They excel at thinking, and being; we excel at commerce, and conquering.
And if a fullscale nuclear war comes around, it’s THEY who will survive; not us…..
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Mr. Mirthless is uncharacterically blissfully unaware of cultural trends.
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Mr Mirthless is wise.
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