When I Was a Youth

I've lived long enough,

Traveled widely,

Seen a lot, heard a lot,

And realized the times have changed,

And changed everywhere.

When I was a youth

I lived in a village

In which an alien girl hardly lasted a moment

Before receiving a very serious proposal;

By the following morning

She would've received ten proposals

Rejected nine of them,

And accepted one,

And very unwilling said NO

To a team of our cow men

On the way to her people.

Now I live this strange new reality

Of Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter,

And the new social space, Socl,

In which young men describe young women

As something less than a Picasso painting,

Left to hang on their Facebook walls;

Where young women see young men

As potential threats to life,

Who must be kept at Facebook mile,

Of course with a smile;

Where a girl has to ask for permission

To ask a personable boy his name,

Or risk a lawsuit;

Where the pronouns he and she

May be insulting to some,

And must be replaced by "they."