In "these days" I consider
it luck, if the the movie
I stream doesn't use F-word.

In the "good old days"
I'd get a back hand hit,
if I ever said S-word.

My grandma, would give a,
Biblical slam, if I muttered,
D-word.

Someone's fetching a switch.
if I called, my sister a B-word

Yet in the "old days" I
do recall my black
friend, braying like a
donkey, calling me H-word,
and we would snicker, when
I called him N-word.

I am California Born and raised
The 70s Great music love and peace craze
I grew up in southern Cali (Califoria)
In the San Fernando Valley

( I’m totally a Valley girl Fur Sure)
Kids Talking in jargon, there’s no cure
People really used terms like the movie
“Clueless” where everything was groovy
Totally awesome, Rad, tubular and cool
Low riders surfers, GDI groups in school

We moved to the country Tarzana
Singing John Denver oh, Susanna
200 chickens; dog, horse older than sin
One breath from the glue factory Old Fin

Neighbors had Santa Anita quarter horse
A wonderful life until the divorce
As we grew, we went our separate way
The same kids K-12 still chat today

School reunion, now Facebook friends
See how we turned out made amends
Through the years, laughter, and tears
California  destroyed, our worst fears

LA is not the same place that used to be
It looks like a bush and they call it a tree
A mass exodus move fast travel far
Leaving in groves by plane, train, and car

Homeless tent city people in the park
Dangerous to move around after dark
Protesters intent to destroy every college
Institutions that stand for knowledge

People learned stay away from the city
San Francisco has a P and **** Map pity
Tourism is a thing of the past
California beauty sadly did not last

I’m the last hold out my friends are gone.
The Roxy, Rainbow Club Rock Music songs
Memorabilia is all that remains the same
So much history now sadness, I refrain

Snow ski and swim the ocean the same day
Vacations, camp all the lakes,places we play
Home uninsurable non-renewable wildfire
I used to believe it’s here I would retire

Earthquakes. I never paid them any mind.
A little shaking from time to time
(Accept 1994, Northridge  6.7, mg 4:31 AM)
Then good still outweighed the bad
The destruction of California makes me sad

An illegal chants  burn Cali to the ground
An accident she set herself on fire found
Set 6 fires arrested released set 5 more
Kamala Bail fund fire girl gone explore

Shasta Lake, houseboat Open space goal
3 days on the lake and not seeing a soul
Shasta Caverns, Yellowstone mountains
Mount Shasta, pure snow water, fountain
  
People took pride, no littering, they care
Now trash sprawled over everywhere
California Poppy the yellow state flower
Remembering , Cali in her golden hour

"I  like  living.  I have been  wildly,  despairingly,  acutely
miserable,  racked with sorrow; but through  it  all  I  still
know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing."  
                                                                          Agatha Christie

As  humans  we  need  regular doses of  unreasonable  beauty,
sublime anomalies, beguiling ephemera, and inexplicable joys.

I  chose  to  be  optimistic,  it  feels  better.  I choose also  to  be
truthful, gentle, and fearless.

Time is really the  only capital that  I or any human being  has,
and it is the only thing we can't afford to lose. Let your choices
reflect your hopes, not your fears.

The past is where we  learn the lesson. The future is where we
apply the lesson.

It is only a short trip. Enjoy it. You are not what you have done,
you are what you have overcome.
                                                       ­                                      Jon York   2024