                  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
