Legacy Lost

[Erthona]

DM, thank you for the explication. I was probably unclear when talking of archetypes. I was meaning to say that just because I use a religious reference to describe an archetype, doesn't mean my intent is religious. However, there are a number of archetypes in this poem, besides the "state of innocence" and "the fall", there is the speaker who is basically a Rasselas type character, a prodigal son if you will. There is this idea that we often times remember things as better than they were, the idea of the idyllic, trying to recapture lost youth, and so on. Regardless, I frequently find things in my poems when I return to them years later that I had no conscious awareness of when writing them. So although one can draw a corollary between "Paradise Lost" and the title of this poem, that was not an intended aspect of mine at the time. In other words, you are giving me more credit than I deserve by implying that I consciously put all the things you mentioned in this poem. But a poem, unlike a child, once it is born it is on its own.
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There is however a rhythmic quality to the lines, although not a smooth one. It is the quality of a man walking, then stopping, then walking, almost like the gait of a drunken man. Not pretty to be sure, but that was not my intent, but I can see how you would see it as flat as it is an arrhythmical rhythm
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I take the point about the racial connotations of 'whitewashed' - but the word modifies 'my memories', so doesn't relate to the town, which I'm not sure is exactly what you mean to say.

"My memories" are of "of those small town times", and the idea of the town (the setting) acts as a metaphor for the "golden age" of the fifties in America, which on the one hand did exist for some, but at the same time there was racial strife, constant fear of a nuclear attack, and many other undertones that would eventually manifest in the sixties and later. The idyllic times, a two car garage, a chicken in every pot, the "gee whiz" attitude, existed only if one was totally unaware of the other things, or somehow managed to turn a blind eye to them.

Well, that's probably more explanation than this piece deserves. As I noted above I probably will change some of the punctuation, as other have also mentioned that was a problem for them.

Thanks again for your comments.

Dale