a fifty year blink,
and the objects of our worth-ship
have changed;
no longer large, steel, interlace
crossing continents,
but complex, telecommunications interlace
crossing everywhere we
can reach

and holiday inn becomes uber,
woolworth’s becomes amazon,
howard johnson becomes starbucks,
and drive-in movies become
home entertainment centers —

the names change,
but each generation excitedly reaches
new pinnacles of humanity
in its own mind

but the blink doesn’t quite work right;
holiday in still expresses itself,
woolworth ‘s became foot locker,
and hojo is a wyndham deal now —

and where my car stops at 6:05 am,
the train still runs,
though these days,
it’s less often used to prove

that humans

are the measure of all things