A Question Of A Murder

for Marla

Have you ever felt that the Sixties had been Murdered?

And what would have been your explanation?

I met a woman named Gail who was born in 1958.

Her frame of reference was Queen and U2.

Gee, I wondered, did you miss the Sixties 

AND the Seventies? Where did the time go?

To be fair I did not ask her those questions. She is 

a psychologist who specializes in PTSD therapies.

I wanted to shout out, “Wait, I’ve been there.

I can lay my body down. I know the way out.”

But I couldn’t because Cheryl interjected

to wax nostalgic about “Sgt. Pepper,” 

Jefferson Airplane, and Janis Joplin.

Ah, yes, the music, the protests, the excitement.

Dear muse, you remember when a few things 

could start such fires, and now so rarely?

And how we reveled in everything, but today 

is unnerving. Our fires have diminished.

Verve, cohesion, and joy are harder to come by.

Oh my, what happened that unraveled us so?

It was Charles Manson. He murdered the Sixties.

From: A Rambly Search for Innocence, Time, and Love

Unpub. MS p. 45