But I've been challenged this afternoon by a writing friend who shared a website showing which words first made it into print in the year you were born.
Click the link below to find words from your own birth year. There will be some surprises!
Merriam Webster - Time Traveller
I've taken as many words as took my fancy and woven them into the poem below.
Curiously CORONAVIRUS was on my list!
All words or phrases from the website have been typed in CAPITALS - with the exception of the title words, where CAPS are used for effect.
WORDS when I was BORN – A prophesy?
I was born in the year of BUTT-NAKED, BED-SHARING.
When DATA-MINING a DEEP SKY
began to
produce the FALSE COLOUR
of
LIGHT POLLUTION.
It could have been the start of a PEACE DIVIDEND,
But UNAPPRECIATED, BACK-OF-THE-ENVELOPE calculations
worked instead
on SELF-DESTRUCT formulations.
It is CLUNKY to SPEAK OUT
UNTRENDY even –
but when
did I follow the curve?
CELLULITE, MORNING BREATH, CORONAVIRUS
each one MEGA deadly in their own
way,
all
born in my birth year!
We’ve gone too far astray.
We need TOUGH LOVE.
Hand me the CORRECTION FLUID.
Pass me a BAND-AID.
Press the ALT KEY.
Let’s reset.
Let the EARTHRISE,
a SQUEAKY
CLEAN,
BABY
BOOMLET,
PEACE
SIGN,
Of the NONCONFRONTATIONAL,
INDUSTRIAL
STRENGTH,
GREEN
REVOLUTION!
