Going to Seed On a mild October evening I browse the Halloween store, A place of gore and gravestones, spiderwebs and skeletons, costumes and cauldrons. A packet catches my eye, Stirring up memories of days almost forty years gone. It is a "HIPPIE KIT": A headband with the word "PEACE" on it, A large peace-sign neck pendant, And a pair of rose-colored glasses, All marked "Made in China". The tie-dyed T-shirt and longhaired wig are not included, But no doubt await me down another nearby aisle. As a plastic skull blares a tinny rendition of the well-known Funeral March Part of me dreams of taking a time machine back to those days of overwhelming optimism in the face of overwhelming adversity. Would those I would show it to laugh or cry to see all their grand world-changing dreams summed up in a pack of trinkets in a costume shop? To those who would cry I have words of consolation: While the bloom of the Flower Children has faded, their seeds continue to grow and spread, flowering anew into a rainbow of colors beyond what they could have ever imagined. -- Tom Digby written Tue Oct 5 20:54:34 PDT 2004