Static

[Tiger the Lion]

Static

I blame it on the art-deco radio
with its smug little baby-blue leather optimism
and its silly, sunshine-yellow stitching.

I blame it for switching 
from Christmas carols 
to saying some John Lennon is dead
while we waited and waited 
for our soldiers and Chucky eggs.

I blame it for changing my Mum and Dad
into my Mother and Father.

I blame it for Kennedy and Kerouac,
John Candy and Christ.

I blame it for everything.

[billy]

i love the mum and dad couplet, i enjoyed the rest of it too. the radio has always been a bit of a twat .

[RiverNotch]

Static

I blame it on the art-deco radio pretty sure there's a proper term for that -- "cathedral radio". thematically relevant, too
with its smug little baby-blue leather optimism although usually art deco radios are wood or bakelite (or at least Blue Velvet)
and its silly, sunshine-yellow stitching.

I blame it for switching 
from Christmas carols 
to saying some John Lennon is dead "some"?
while we waited and waited 
for our soldiers and Chucky eggs.

I blame it for changing my Mum and Dad
into my Mother and Father. maybe remove "my", even from both lines, to condense

I blame in for Kennedy and Kerouac, blame it
John Candy and Christ.

I blame it for everything.

"it on" to "it for" -- what's "it"? The second it is most likely the radio, but then what's the first it? the static? but why blame the static on the radio? how's the radio to blame for the static, as the rest of the poem fails to connect? might be smoother just to cut out the first stanza.

i mean, i feel like this would click easier if the static were solely to blame, at least to my cold cold mind: static is, at its faintest, cosmic background radiation, the last essentially unchanged trace of the birth of the universe; and, the rest, heat. 

[Leanne]

We had a radio like that when I was a kid, only it was apricot. I now hate pretty much anything art deco, quite frankly - I associate it with bad taste, just like I do my parents

I like the double meaning of static. We can't control what's on the radio/happening in the world, no matter how much we'd love for it to stay just as perfect as we think it is when we're children. I didn't know who John Lennon was either when everyone was going on about how he was shot - but it sure was big news.

The second coming was broadcast live on the BBC, but nobody was listening because the commercial stations had this van with free icy cold cans of Coca Cola.

[Keith]

It does have a lot to answer for, I like how the points of reference work with the double use of the title either waiting for eggs, mum and dad stuck in their ways, the stalling of social reform, even john candy selling curtain rings in a loop afraid to move on after his wife died and christ well there are still people waiting. The repeat works well, as does the whole piece. best Keith

[Fredefup]

Besides the typo I think the poem works perfectly. Not so sure about the title, but titles are generally less relevant to the content than the content itself. My favorite part is the short burst of aliterations just before the ending. It makes a nice rhythmic crescendo while it kinda bends the loss thing in neon. I'm not sure they had radios around Jesus' time tho.

[Tiger the Lion]

Thanks for all the reads and comments guys. 

@ River, some good points as usual. Researching the radio in question I'm feeling like it's neither art deco, nor cathedral in a pure sense. But it still passes for art deco by the more broad, popular definition. As for the disconnect on the 2 "its", I'm just now toying with whether or not to strike "it on" from line one. It might be a relic device that only worked under an earlier "working title". 
Cheers everyone,
Paul