Generations

I had braces put on my teeth at an age
when my father had all of his pulled out.

The city is more care-worn than it was,
but more sophisticated too. You take, you give.

We rode the bus downtown in our youth.
The old stores are gone, but there’s a hot zone.

When we were boys, Chris and I, we wrote
poems that mentioned Steppenwolf, The Cream;

He’s done his duty now: family, career—
me, I’m still changing addresses.

Hollywood calls this “script continuity:”
My parents and grandparents died in the same house.

You take, you give. That’s the way it goes.