'Back in the Day'

watched an old video

while riding the exercise bike,

as my youngest daughter would say,

something from ‘back in the day’,

yeah, I watched Woodstock,

and no, I wasn’t there,

although sometimes I think

I must have been the only one

who wasn’t;

it brought back old memories,

so it was kind of like I was there;

Wavy Gravy and the Hog Farm,

the Merry Pranksters,

living for the moment,

like some lost ancient tribe,

it made me wonder

where they are today,

dot.com execs,

living in the hills

around San Francisco,

in multi-million dollar mansions,

or dead (farewell Kesey);

Richie Havens,

righteous and dignified,

singing about freedom and truth,

Canned Heat and the Bear,

bouncing around the stage

like a hippopotamus in heat,

lithe and graceful,

poetry in motion,

Joan Baez

rambling on about

county jails and causes,

blah blah blah,

fast forward,

I suppose she was cool

for the times,

but a little hard to take today,

the wounded dove,

sad little puppy dog eyes look,

gets a bit old,

Daltrey,

young and god-like,

Moon, wild and crazy eyed,

playing drums with demonic possession,

Townsend sending whirlybirds

round and round;

the workout came to an end,

there was other things

I had to take care of,

so I didn’t watch the rest of the video;

but it was enough;

memories from ‘back in the day’

only go so far,

before you remember

how badly you wanted them

to be over;

when you were living them.

.

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