Cheated

In response to “The Spirit of ‘76” by Rick Mullin

Admit it, sometimes you still long for disco –
the way the music made us come alive
so childishly, allowing ids to thrive
the way they used to back in San Francisco,
before the plot turned dark, like some Scorcese
gangster flick. Before the drugs, diseases, lies, and money
wrenched heartache from what started out as funny,
psychopathy from what was merely crazy.
We thought we only needed some new riff –
some fresher, harsher sound, with scattered splotches
of what was good enough to be repeated.
But all we really got was some obnoxious
mockery that couldn’t save us if
it even wanted to. Yeah, we were cheated.