Now, Then!

Of a certainty it's a brave new world
we live in, particularly for the elderly
among us, and among us there are
particularly a plenitude of elderly
whom modern medical technology
has gifted with an elongated lifespan.
Technology has transformed the world
in so many ways, one of them instant
communication beloved of the young.
The elderly prefer face-to-face talk.
And they do talk among themselves
since there is much to speak of. The
outrageous cost of everything, as an
example, since they can recall the pittance
paid for consumer goods that now cost
what was back then a month's salary at
least. At least they say it to be so.
The music of today is not so much 
music, they agree, as an agony of
disturbed sound, nowhere near what
they were familiar with in that world
they inhabited long ago. The weather,
that's a topic that is inexhaustible, and
rife with its own controversies. Some
times they agree between them that
some things will never change, and that
perhaps they should not. But the changes
that brought them to a longer life are
welcome, thank you very much, as they
launch into a comparison of who it was
who managed to recover faster after their
open-heart, triple-bypass surgery. Yet
they do agree that their offspring and the
offspring of their offspring will just have
to practise patience for their inheritance.