Once, this place was teeming
With families trying to show
Their over-energized children
The wonders of a country
As viewed from the Interstate
While Buzz and Neil walked the moon
The kids were more interested
In the pool where psychedelic towels
Had suburban girls with braces and
Corn silk makeup thinking they
Were hippies too, while their brothers
Performed cannonballs off the sides; but
No amount of water splashed
Was going to move mom’s hair with
That much hairspray, as dad
Read the Courier-Gazetter
And asked what the country was coming to
There in view of the off-ramp, sipping
A Pepsi-Cola and eating a Butternut bar

But the real decay comes not from complacency
But from not understanding that everything we see
Is in effect us