Gone are the days

Gone are the days of outdoor play
Parks and swings and slides and mud
Team games and races and getting grass stains
Fun and adventure and adrenaline
Climbing trees and collecting conkers
Finding daisies and skipping ropes
Dodgeball, football, and parachute
Summer schemes and youth clubs and Sunday schools
Having hobbies that require the outdoors
Playing in the garden with imaginations
Siblings talking at meals on nights out
Story time and bed times before 7 o'clock
Respecting your elders and never swearing
Growing up free and happy and healthy
Gone are the days of dolls and tape players
For technology stole the fantasy
Now it's a plug switched on and a hand held device
Now they stare down and follow the light
Now it's a tantrum over an ipad or tv
Now its a room where they never want to leave
Now it's a new phone like an apple or an orange
Now it's solo and lonely and dull
Now it's knives and guns and stabbings
Now it's a real crime if you have a fall out
Now it ruins lives for ever
Now it fills parents head with terror
Now it's a news story smashing up the headline
Now it's not real life at all
A troll was a toy that had glittery coloured hair
Not a demon behind a keyboard
Not someone out to make life unbearable
But a collectable we all had
Gone are the days of my childhood
I hope it flips back
I hope social media crashes
I hope the apple rots