Days Gone Past by Alejandro N. Marrero 2/7/2020

Gone is the paper of days long past
Now we spend our days staring into glass
Not the cleanest of news on the display
Rare earth minerals to power them up to play

Gone are the days of the pen and the paper
Likewise lighting now digital not tapers
We use our fingers to scroll and swipe
Dating apps the reasons people know left and right

Gone is the young from playing in safe streets
Done are the days they climbed the trees
No hopscotch, jacks or uno cards
These are the days of Uber and fast cars

Gone are the stars that we’d see on clear nights
Now there’s electricity with sky polluting lights
The distance from food to the table is no longer short.
For we live in cities where supermarkets import

Gone are the days you can truly hide
Where silence blanketed every night
Now we stare at screens made of glass
Our neck always hurting unlike the past

Now that we live on digital screens
We’ve forgotten how to live it seems
Progress never forgives, know what I mean?
As we polish ourselves with filters to rid the sheens.
We don’t farm, or even write.
All we do is scroll, swipe and type

Gone are the days we looked to the stars
Gone are the days we knew how to farm
It sounds silly to think we’ve left our pasts
One thing is certain the present never lasts.