PAD Day 27 Bonus: Happy Birthday to Me

 So here is my other poem today, responding to the Write Better Poetry prompt to write a poem with the title "New ______." I usually write a poem about my birthday, and this year, crummy as it's been so far, should be no exception.

New Year
 
“May you live in interesting times.” – Old Chinese curse
 
Another year older today. I’ll let you guess:
Half of my current age is a prime number.
Okay, the year was 1988. I was 37.
Half a life ago, not much was happening.
I was married with three kids, and my wife
and I were well into our careers, settled
in a four-bedroom colonial.
My midlife crisis hadn’t kicked in.
I hadn’t started writing poetry again yet.
The big films were Die Hard
(not a Christmas movie!)
and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
The Cosby Show was still big on TV.
Nothing much was going on musically—
disco and punk had peaked, and grunge
was still a few years away.
Just a bunch of generic pop,

with rap creeping into the mainstream.
We had a cellular phone, but it was
for the car only, and powered by a bag
the size of a briefcase. No, it couldn’t
take photos or play Candy Crush.
I was elated to get a new home computer
with 64K of memory, replacing my old TI-99.
We weren’t at war anywhere,
but there was still some strife in the world,
and the Iran-Contra affair.
The Iron Curtain and Berlin Wall
were beginning to crumble.
George H.W. Bush was elected,
and said something about
“a thousand points of light.”
My Phillies, between championships,
stunk. It was a pretty dull year.
 
If only this year could be more like that one.