1959

was still years before
Kennedy’s demise.
It was the year of Cuba,
of space and of Russia.

The Caspian Tiger
became extinct in Iran.
For the first time, in Congo,
AIDS killed a man.

Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens
and the Big Bopper fell.
Rosanna Arquette was born
and Patrick Bruel.

The US entered Vietnam.
George Marshall started his plan
and 59 to 76 became
the successful economic span.

It was the coldest year
of the cold war, the hottest
in the propaganda of fear
against a formidable foe.

The Shah celebrated
his fortieth birthday (*)
and met the student Farah
at an embassy in France.

And children everywhere
flocked to see Disney’s
new and shiny Sleeping Beauty,
Baby Boomers in bloom.

Why these details? You ask.
Look at what we didn’t know
back then, look at the World
as you thought you knew,

And look at it again today.
How different everything is.
How unpredictable, how utterly
unimaginable the future laid.

Should we spit at its face,
as Ferdowsi did?
Or see the grains of sand
as what they are, sand..

jam09