Now that it’s the future, I’m longing for the past:
It seems to me with every year, we’re heading downhill fast.
I suppose I’ll start with weather (with forecasters obsolete);
This June Atlanta’s 40th blizzard was followed by some sleet.
The ozone’s gone, the ocean’s warm, typhoons occur all year.
The North Pole’s lost; penguins extinct as dinosaurs, I hear.
My grandson tells me this–I have his first-hand view of school,
Where “Everyone’s a winner, all are right . . . and everyone’s a fool.”
Children are different now; they’re put in “schools” right after birth,
Parents workaholics, unconcerned with them or mirth.
With little time at home, this generation doesn’t cook;
They order custom meals online: “What little time that took!”
At home you’ll find no kitchen, “suppertime,” or dining room,
So no more family meals— perhaps the surest sign of doom.
And people eat alone, plopped smack in front of one’s own screen;
They sit there ‘til their eyes glaze over, and bots handle the clean.
Now we’re stuck with AstroTurf to “cut the time we mow,”
And drones, the newest crisis: Airplanes, watch out below!
“Proved: Cell Phones Cause Cancer,” as I move on to healthcare.
This movement practically mirrors the old tobacco scare.
Virtual identity theft’s an oft-reported crime,
Authorities don’t even care: it happens all the time.
The U.S-Mexico border’s closed again, since everyone’s now in,
And the Holy War—it’s World War Three, is the worst it’s ever been.
Such are the current troubles; I’d pause time here if I could.
My guess of what the future holds suggests I really should!
