The Happening (Poetry)

Now they try to make out that it never happened
ignore the songs that take a body back
or suggest such stories are exaggeration
thus stop this sweet nostalgia in its track

But it’s all true — for I was there and I remember
and I would be prepared to testify
there was time when peace was top of the agenda
and love was in extravagant supply

An unrolling magic carpet revolution
opposed to nuclear bombs and Vietnam
when brotherhood meant so much more than an expression
and freedom was the right of every man

High ideals that seem, in retrospect, ambitious
and maybe many years ahead of time
if precocious or naive, what was delicious
is viewed today as tantamount to crime

Let no one change the facts — the 60s really happened
it wasn’t grand illusion or cheap sham
the authorities were smug — it caught them napping
and what happened once might come around again