A Battle Between The Ages Poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

Ideals and values.
Stuck in a rusting collected dust.
Stubbornly affixed,
To times that have gone.
Yet kept reminisced to miss.
Have those much more competent.
And much more conscious to be aware,
That some folks have moved too slow...
To catch up to these times they find,
Are not defined by fashion.
But by speed.

A battle between the ages.
Has begun to take place.
With those older discovering quick,
The time they spend,
Wanting life to like it as they wish...
Leaves them doing their best,
To tighten their grip...
On those days swiftly fading away.

And warned they were,
These young folks today...
Are bribed with minds,
More developed and equipped.
To digest information.
As if human computers.
Already programmed to know what they want.
Without daydream wishes.

And being among those elders now.
I know what it's like,
To fight with 'dinosaurs'.
Who have their yesterdays to appetite.
To live in times,
When stability meant...
Doing one thing done for the rest of one's life.
And preparing for retirement.
Before leaving elementary school.
To then find one job.
With it to commit to.
"And, by the way,
Where do you see yourself?
In the next five or ten years."
I remember being asked such questions.
To think to myself,
"God knows your voice...
I'm not forced to repeatedly hear.
I just want the experience.
Then do as I please with it! "

Ideals and values.
So quick they come to leave these days.
Creating a battle between the ages.
With a future to have wished,
Already to have left...
Those now to have grown old.
Remember their first TV.
And telephones that had dials.
With one dollar to last for an entire week.
When one week,
Had then felt like an eternity.

And today,
The year is 2019!
Two zero one nine.
And those slow of mind,
Are trying their best...
If they could with or without protest,
Relive the 19th century.
With their muskets.
Seeking Native born Americans,
To chase away from their own reservations.
Just to hear themselves called heroes.
And victorious champions of the entire World.

And I remember,
Running around when a child.
In a tiny apartment,
Back in the early 1950's.
Adorning a towel.
Declaring myself 'Mighty Mouse'.
Not to realize much later in life,
There would be fat cats and gutter rats.
More afraid and frightened by stool pigeons.