When I Was Your Age
When I was your age,
We weren't afraid of technology.
It was afraid of us.
The human genius didn't cower
Behind a computer that controlled an iron machine.
But brilliance was unfolded
In a battle, strategically dissected.
Human bodies were shredded with shrapnel,
And the tight threads of family fabric
Were slashed.
When I was your age it was
Messy, bloody, it was dirty, sweaty,
Destructive.
But we weren't sealed in protective,
Glass display cases
With insensitive machines
To fight our battles for us.
Iron men were out superheroes,
Our fantasies, our fan-girl loves.
But now we've woken up from our dreams
To discover that they've come true.
Even though we never really wanted them to
In the first place.
Because we wanted to believe in Patriotism,
Standing under a Stars and Stripes victoriously torn.
In courage, persistence, honor, inner strength,
And the power that the mind has over the body.
The laying down of one's own life
For a fellow soldier with a fiancé back home.
We believed in sacrifice for the simple
Love of one's own country: it's principles, it's government.
That maybe winning wasn't the only thing that mattered,
But it was the change that occurred in you
Along the arduous journey.
We weren't afraid of technology.
It was afraid of us.
The human genius didn't cower
Behind a computer that controlled an iron machine.
But brilliance was unfolded
In a battle, strategically dissected.
Human bodies were shredded with shrapnel,
And the tight threads of family fabric
Were slashed.
When I was your age it was
Messy, bloody, it was dirty, sweaty,
Destructive.
But we weren't sealed in protective,
Glass display cases
With insensitive machines
To fight our battles for us.
Iron men were out superheroes,
Our fantasies, our fan-girl loves.
But now we've woken up from our dreams
To discover that they've come true.
Even though we never really wanted them to
In the first place.
Because we wanted to believe in Patriotism,
Standing under a Stars and Stripes victoriously torn.
In courage, persistence, honor, inner strength,
And the power that the mind has over the body.
The laying down of one's own life
For a fellow soldier with a fiancé back home.
We believed in sacrifice for the simple
Love of one's own country: it's principles, it's government.
That maybe winning wasn't the only thing that mattered,
But it was the change that occurred in you
Along the arduous journey.
♠ ♠ ♠
The assignment for this poem was to think of something you believe will be obsolete by the time you're a grandparent, and describe how it used to be a part of the world to a child who has never seen something like it. I decided that human soldiers would be obsolete, and countries would have iron machine soldiers like the ones in Iron Man 2.