Young Women

If you were a young woman in the forties
after World War II, you were more
beautiful than many who came before you.
Your men had been fighting over seas
Hollywood was in the neighborhood
glamour was splashed across the screen

and extra cash was available for red lipstick
tailored clothes, sultry hats, and hairdos.

The men hurried home, to find
beautiful women waiting for them
helping them to forget the horrors of war
while they went about the business

of bringing life back to normal,
getting married, having babies,
buying homes, and finding jobs
to employ them until retired. 

Contrast the innocence of those times
to a young woman of today,
still beautiful, more options available 

but lacking the refined dignity
posting half naked pictures on FB
pumping for another drink
well beyond their thirties.