When Scrolling Was Not a Verb

“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”
― Albert Einstein

 

I wake up every day still wondering about the changes in this world since I came of age…..

SCROLLING

Name, address, telephone number

Birthdate

Index finger poised I scroll down the years

Down

Down

Down

 

Down past generations xyz

Down before we were gray

And our faces etched with lines

Down when our backs were supple

And our knees strong

Down when the world was simpler

And made more sense

 

Down before the internet, cellphones

Facebook, Instagram, social media

When going viral meant ill

Down before scroll was a verb

 

Down before the worry of climate change

 

Before Iraq, Iran, 9/11

Afghanistan

And Viet Nam

 

Down to the music

Oh the music!

The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Woodstock

The best ever played

 

Down to when we were activists

and bearers of social change

When we were women with untamed body hair

and swaying breasts

 

Down to when we were near the top

Of the nonexistent scrollbar

When the world was ours

And full of hope

Down

Down

Down

Until I reach my birth year

1953