Before the Robot Came
With aluminum lanterns, we braved the night,
Studying, dozing, giggling,
Before dawn flushed our rooms
And left us begging for more minutes.
We sat on stories in the backyard,
Leapt on broomsticks,
Satisfied with ancient knowledge
That filled street corners where we dashed and laughed.
We foraged skittles and grasshoppers,
Hurried to school to clean the board with our bare hands,
Hurried back to help with chores.
We grew into a language that kept us aflame,
But never burned us.
We were blacksmiths,
Forging our paths as life would have us,
Sandwiched between millennials and Generation X.
We hated the baby boomers,
They had a target on their backs.
Then one day,
Out of the horror of the unknown,
Came the Ameche,
Small, ridiculous, but connected.
It graduated its demons as the years rolled by,
Until it became a strange thing with iron fangs.
That knew everything,
Said everything,
And left us unable to fathom
Who we are anymore.
