LAidback no longer

Expect a sunburnt smile
with white teeth gleaming
in any market isle
in trendy streaming

Spouting catchy metaphors
in tilting lilting idiom
Driving cool wheeled dinosaurs
in bumper to bumper ‘freedom’

Headed for the erstwhile Golden West
on to land abundantly blessed
in irresistibly upbeat quest
Too late, turned crowded, worn out, stressed

In unrelenting motion
have been pumping most of its oil
polluting air & ocean
depleted the bountiful soil

Time to wake up from faded dreams:
It’s getting ever hotter
fires blaze on hills & in ravines
rivers, lakes drained of water

We’re culprits of reckless squander
stared down by unblinking drought
Wake up from fantasy’s wonder:
Face it. No way, none but out

Days gone when LAid back seemed easy
brimming with optimism breezy

+)
LAid back = laid back as in LA

edited 10/14/23 1345