that world changed

1970 and Joplins’ narrative
we hear brief memories nobody shared
as that bottle of whiskey took its score
and we heard she was dead and so was Hendrix
and we accepted change as inevitable
but what followed was simply unacceptable

The Beatles turned away from each other
with them an era simply expired
we tried to make it again but instead
we live lonely lives never to end
instead collecting traces of the inspired
as though love could be stored

the world is full of objects
some of them are valued by others
but so many of them made after that era
are transient and plastic

and the next generation look at our works
and wonder what all the fuss is about.