Epic of an Eighties Child

Up with the sun,
For a day of great fun,
Gotta hurry downstairs for cartoons
Grab some Froot Loops,
With sugar, three scoops,
And my colour-change Toucan Sam spoon

Bugs and Tweety, Care Bears
Gotta beat Dave downstairs,
'Cause he likes all the icky boys' shows
But we both like the Smoggies,
And he's still feeling groggy,
So we'll reach an agreement, I know

We'd sit spellbound, for hours,
Transfixed by the power
Of the characters' antics on screen
Anvils drop, things explode,
Folks get squashed on the road
Boy, that Wile. E Coyote fights mean!

When our mom heard the din
She'd come storming right in
And demand that we turn off our show,
"Violence warps your mind
Can't old Wile. E be kind?
He's an awful role model, you know!"

"Furthermore," she'd declare,
"You two need your fresh air!"
So reluctantly, we'd head outside
But we never got mad
'Cause it wasn't so bad,
For we had bikes and scooters to ride!

We'd race up and down,
Back and forth, all around
In a fantasy world all our own
Nascar tracks, outer space
Such a magical place
Was the yard of our childhood home

We'd blow bubbles, climb trees,
Hang heads-down from our knees
Let the summer breeze run through our hair
Balls a-bounce, Skip-It spinning,
"Let's play tag! Hey, who's winning?"
But we'd never keep score, so who cared?

All too often I'd fall
From my friend's Pogo Ball
While she'd gracefully hop up the street
I'd feel jealous inside,
With my bruised knees and pride
But that Saturn-shaped ball was so neat!

Even without our toys,
There'd be infinite joys
In a simple fort built in the woods,
Lean-to walls, logs for seats
Pine needles 'neath our feet
'Twas a place only kids understood

In the blink of an eye
Streetlights lit up the sky
Like fireflies 'gainst the dusky blue-grey
Of the gathering night,
For more playtime we'd fight
But our folks called us in anyway

For our childhoods were fleeting
Into life, a mere greeting
For the bleaker realities that came
One friend's pregnant, one's quit school,
One wears black, thinks life's cruel
Not a thing like our long-ago games

But the memories strive
Through our young-adult lives
As we struggle through courseloads and debt
Though those days have gone by
We still look back and sigh,
For the great times we'll never forget.