day TWO HUNDRED and NINETY NINE

Long Ago and Far Away

I tell my younger wife

in my Jungian daze

long ago before the moon was full

before pen pals

before pencil pals

in the goose quill days

we had to go out in dark of night

for black to grind

and trek to oughter water

to make liquid ink to write

on the cut down clarinet reeds

we slowly beat to pulp

and dried for paper and envelope

hoping the snail express came that year

to take our letter

and communication was soooooo slow

it took seven years to get an answer

from one who lived just down the street

but it was two miles uphill to their house

and three miles uphill back to ours

before the TV worked

this box that just sat there

next to the dinosaur egg

doing nothing

jack squat

and we said what is that box?

why do we have it?

so we had no commercials

no reality shows

no faux-haired orange-skinned men

who tried to grab pussies

with their hands so small

they couldn't clutch logic

so lied a lot

and whined in their cheesy suits
and we were happy

--Steven B. Smith