Newfangled Poem by B. V. Dahlen

How modern! How new!
These halogen streetlights
Turn night into day
And our front steps aglow

You can read your newspaper
On the steps summer evenings
And visit with neighbors
While the traffic speeds by

Dad squeezed the electric bill
Squinting at newsprint
While the lights overhead
Hissed and glowed green

On our linear playground
We played stone school and tag
While the sharp concrete echoes
Swallowed sounds of our glee

Oh Daddy. Please Daddy
Can I have a nickel
The ice cream man’s jingle
Beckons us to his side

But drawing upon him
I waver and fall back
His green tinted skin
Appeared foreign and grim

I missed the old streetlights
Their dim shadows never
Turned Daddys to creatures
That scared little girls.