Times Were Simpler

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We like to imagine

Times were simpler then.

We brag to grandchildren,

Honey, when I was your age

I walked a mile

To school every day,

Barefoot, through the snow,

Uphill both ways. They laugh.

We romanticize the past,

Ignore ugly parts, piece a mosaic

Of what we wish to keep.

If only we could turn back

The clock a hundred years . . .

Times were no different.

Wars, inequity, cruelty,

Hatred, disease . . . The same.

We were simpler then.

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