The Fabulous Fifties

The Visalia high school year book theme,

class of 1949, was atomic energy.

and that was seen somehow, as benign.

Poor Julius and Ethel Rosenberg sought

to democratize the H-bomb.

They got the electric chair.

Meanwhile, my grandpa Smith

had his eyes on eleven acres of sand

beside the river named St John.

The magazines promised us

a rocket-powered

magnesium alloy future,

all streamlined couches

and flying vacuum cleaners.

-we got big fins on cars.

Walter Keane's wife painted big-eyed waifs

-but he took the credit and the money,

Beatnik Jack hit the road

and Senator Jack wed young Jackie.

Beside the river named St John,

the honeysuckle twined around

the well on Grandpa Smith’s farm.

and he grew a ton of tomatoes,

melons,and peppers.

Isaac Asimov coined the first rule

for automatons:

Do no harm to humans.

Because we had that covered

pretty well ourselves.