Boyhood Joys

It used to be that little boys
Would sword-fight in a field with sticks,
Or shoot tin cans off walls of bricks,
Or clang Mom’s pot lids for the noise,
Or, in their rooms alone with toys,
They threw tin soldiers in the mix.
Back then, before the age of six,
They knew the range of boyhood joys.

Today, instead, they stare at screens
With pixel pictures built by ’bots.
Their toys are glowing, colored dots;
Their thumbs move shapes in ersatz scenes,
And by the time they reach their teens,
The screens control their waking thoughts.
Those little cyber-gaming sots
Have spent their boyhoods with machines.

Yet, if we took the screens away,
They’d soon return to normal play.

- Joshua C Frank