​POETRY  -  
          A New Day 

"We were flying high as kites through the sky,"
                                    Photo by Weebly.com                                    

Happiness Was
          Kent, Ohio 1971
by Karen Marker

​It was marshmallows
over sun beams, golden outside
inside sticky-gooey cotton candy.
We were flying high as kites
through the sky, blue air 
caught in our hair. At sixteen
spring days were somersaulting,
the world was upside down
when we lay on the Green
playing with vowel
sounds, singing Imagine
Stairway to Heaven
our favorite songs by Donovan
Elton John, Janis, Joni.
Everything was opening--
women, blacks, gays
coming out, the second
Earth Day and the sky
was clearing, the river
no longer burning, none of us
old enough to be drafted.
We felt happiness
bloom on our skin.
Wispy-dreamy like love.
There was nothing
to stop us from carrying on.
We forgot the wars
others had fought.
Life was a lollipop,
we thought would last forever.

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​​​Karen Marker is an Oakland-based poet and memoirist whose work draws on her family roots and branches in places that include New Orleans, Sweden, New England, Ohio and Vilna. She also turns to her studies in psychology, classical mythology and religion for inspiration. Her work has recently been published in The MacGuffin, won awards through the Ina Coolbrith Circle and been included in the Kent State University May 4th Archives. A chapbook will be coming out in the next year with Finishing Line Press.

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