A Utopia On Paper

 I remember when the world was perfect.

There was a magazine stand
At the community center
I go to a lot, 
Though nowhere near as 
Often as I used to.
It hasn't been there in years,
Perhaps a decade
Or more,
But I remember when it was there.
It was a time when thoughts
Belonged in print
And when people 
Could be seen
In more ways than one.
It was a time when progress
Wasn't hampering humanity.

Back in the days
When the magazine stand was there,
The internet was still young.
You didn’t have always online games,
Only small distractions
From a life you had to return to.
It was perfect.
You had a day to day life
You suffered through,
On the promise that eventually
You could return
To the world that accepted you
Because it didn't know you any other way. 
Two worlds set each other off,
Neither one quite enough,
Yet together they could live in harmony.

When they took away the magazine stand,
I didn't miss it.
Not really.
I'd never bought anything there
And it's not as if you couldn't find anything
They sold
Online.
The internet had rendered so much
Obsolete,
And we took it for granted
That this was what progress looked like.
A utopia,
Where scarce resources stayed in the ground
And people had more space for other
More meaningful things.
A utopia on paper
That when put in practice
Quickly proved to be more flimsy
Than the material it was printed on.